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Columbia  Umbergitp  A  I?' 
in  tfje  Cttp  of  Jleto  Horfe    *• K 

College  of  pieman*  anb  gmrgeonss 


<©tben  bp 

Jr.ebtomp.  Cragin 

1859-1918 


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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2011  with  funding  from 

Open  Knowledge  Commons 


http://www.archive.org/details/personalreminisc01weir 


PERSONAL   REMINISCENCES 

OF  THE 

NEW    YORK    HOSPITAL 

EROM   1856  TO   1900* 


BY 

ROBERT    F.    WEIR,    M.D.,    Hon.    F.R.C.S.,    M.C.S.C.    Paris,    Hon. 

F.A.C.S.,  etc. 

Attending  Surgeon   1876  to   1900;  Consulting  Surgeoti   Thereafter. 

I  little  thought,  when  as  a  lad  I  walked  down  Broadway  and  passed  the 
wide,  park-like  entrance  of  the  New  York  Hospital  opposite  Pearl  Street 
with  its  tall  iron  railing  and  handsome  iron  gate  opening  into  a  broad  avenue 
lined  on  each  side  with  a  double  row  of  splendid  lofty  elms,  that  a  few  years 
later  I  should  become  one  of  its  lesser  officials.  I  had  graduated  the  youngest 
in  my  cla^s  from  the  just  established  New  York  Free  Academy  and  had  started 
a>  a  clerk  with  my  father  who  was  an  apothecary  in  Grand  Street.  Dr.  H.  B. 
Sands,  who  later  achieved  great  eminence,  was  also  the  son  of  an  apothecary 
who  carried  on  his  business  at  Church's  Pharmacy  in  the  Bowery  a  few  blocks 
from  our  store.  During  the  two  or  three  years  I  was  acting  as  a  clerk,  I 
rose   from   taking   down   and    putting   up   the  store  shutters   to   become   quite 

rt  in  the  manufacture  of  tinctures,  etc.,  and  acquired,  thanks  to  a  pleas- 
ing and  diligent  perusal  of  Wood  and  Bache's  Dispensatory,  quite  a  fair 
knowledge  of  medicines  and  their  actions  on  the  human  body.  Perhaps  this 
training  inclined  me  to  tin-  practice  of  medicine,  but  I  have  always  been 
convinced    that    two   incidents   determined    my   career.     The   first   was   the 

■    I    obtained    trom    the    painful    ingrowing   nail    of    ni\    great   toe.      It 

plagued  11. e  badlj   for  several  months  until  m\    lather  sent  me  one  Saturday 


*  I  tten  f'.r  tin-  coming  III  tor;   "I  the  New  Ybrlf  Hospital,  and  was 

'I-    Howard  Townsi  nd,  President,  in  the  numbei  of 
tin-  II-  Bulletin  foi   I  in--.  1917. 


PERSONAL    REMINISCENCES 


to  the  office  of  Dr.  James  R.  Wood  whom  I  had  frequently  seen  in  our  store 
and  who  was  generally  known  by  all  the  neighborhood  as  little  Dr.  Jimmy 
Wood.  His  office  was  at  the  corner  of  East  Broadway  and  Market  Street 
(and  they  were  fashionable  streets  then).  Here  he  held  once  a  week  a  sort 
of  clinic  for  his  numerous  students.  Thither  I  went  in  due  time  and  was 
ushered  into  his  sanctum.  He  examined  my  stripped  toe  and  while  explaining 
to  the  embryo  medicos  the  nature  of  my  trouble,  slyly  took  up  a  pair  of 
pincers  and  quickly  placing  one  jaw  of  this  under  the  nail,  clamped  the  upper 
jaw  to  and  pulled  the  nail  out.  I  gave  a  jump  and  a  wild  yell,  but  it  didn't 
hurt  as  much  as  I  thought  it  would,  since  the  nail  had  been  considerably 
loosened  by  the  prolonged  inflammation  and  suppuration.  I  went  home 
relieved,  and  telling  my  father  of  it  said,  I'd  like  to  be  able  to  do  like  that. 
This  impression  was  a  few  months  augmented  when  my  father  slipped  on  the 
ice  on  the  sidewalk  and  broke  his  leg.  This  fracture  was  called  by  Dr. 
Wood,  who  had  been  sent  for,  a  Pott's  fracture  at  the  ankle  with  consider- 
able turning  and  dislocation  of  the  foot  outwards.  With  much  gentleness 
Dr.  Wood  raised  and  examined  the  foot,  and  then,  with  a  sudden  and  strong 
twist,  forced  the  bones  into  place.  The  patient's  pain  was  great,  but 
momentary,  and  a  splint  deftly  applied  allowed  everything  to  progress 
smoothly. 

The  next  day  I  announced  my  firm  determination  to  become  a  surgeon 
and  in  brief  was  placed  later  by  our  family  physician,  Dr.  Benjamin  Ogden, 
formerly  resident  physician  of  the  Bloomingdale  Asylum  for  the  Insane,  in 
the  office  of  Dr.  Gurdon  Buck,  who  was  then  one  of  the  surgeons  of  the 
New  York  Hospital  and  also  of  St.  Luke's  Hospital.  He  received  me  as  a 
free  pupil  on  condition  that  I  was  to  assist  him  at  his  operations  and  dressings, 
and  to  look  after  his  city  collections,  and  I  later  found  out  there  was  included, 
when  I  became  a  senior  pupil,  the  duty  that  I  should  quiz  or  instruct  the  junior 
students  in  his  office.  Dr.  Buck  was  a  large  man  with  a  face  somewhat 
German  in  aspect,  slow  in  action  and  in  speech,  but  having  a  thoughtful 
mind  and  fertile  in  surgical  expedients.  He  was  a  very  reticent  person  and, 
though  I  remained  with  him  nearly  three  years  and  was  considered  his 
favorite  among  his  eight  or  ten  later  pupils,  yet  when  riding  with  him  in  his 
buggy,  which  he  drove  himself,  to  see  his  patients  or  to  go  with  him  to  the 
hospital,  he  seldom  spoke  unless  to  reply  to  my  inquiries,  which  were  but 
seldom  made,  for  I  was  a  shy  youth.  I  remember  driving  with  him  from 
ioth  Street,  where  his  office  was,  to  St.  Luke's  Hospital  in  54th  Street,  and 
thence  to  the  New  York  Hospital,  in  all  a  distance  of  six  or  seven  miles, 
during  this  time  he  never  said  a  word  to  me.  I  respected  and  admired  his 
merits  then  and  after,  as  a  teacher,  friend  and  colleague. 

An  occurrence  during  these  student  days  brings  even  yet  a  smile  to  my 
lips.     I  was  giving  ether  to  a  private  patient  for  Dr.  Buck,  in  which  the 


OF    THE    NEW    YORK    HOSPITAL 


desired  degree  of  anaesthesia  is  recognized  by  the  eyeball  becoming  insensitive. 
Using  this  test  I  reported,  "He  is  under  it,  Sir,"  when  Dr.  Buck  commenced 
to  use  his  scalpel,  but  a  cry  from  the  patient  and  vigorous  twitching  of  the 
hands  and  face  showed  I  was  in  error.  Dr.  Buck  said,  "More  ether,  Mr. 
Weir."  I  poured  in  the  inhaler  more  of  the  anaesthetic  and  in  a  few  minutes 
I  said  confidently,  "He  is  ready  now,  Sir,"  but  the  first  cut  showed  again 
that  the  patient  felt  the  surgeon.  "Don't  you  know  how  to  give  ether  yet?" 
growled  Dr.  Buck.  "Doctor,"  I  said,  "I  have  done  as  you  directed  me  and 
carried  out  your  instructions  by  touching  his  eyeball  from  time  to  time  and 
he  didn't  wink  at  all."  "Which  eye  did  you  touch?"  he  said.  "The  left  one, 
as  usual."  Said  Dr.  Buck,  "I  forgot  to  tell  you  that  that  was  his  glass  eye!" 
So  far  the  paths  that  led  me  finally  to  the  New  York  Hospital  have  been 
somewhat  indistinct,  but  they  will  now  appear  more  plainly.  Dr.  Buck, 
inquiring  of  me  as  to  my  progress  at  the  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons, 
where  I  had  matriculated  and  whose  lectures  I  attended,  found  that  of 
the  first  year's  course,  which  comprised  instruction  in  Chemistry,  Materia 
Medica.  Physiology  and  Anatomy,  I  had,  I  thought,  and  he  thought  also, 
enough  knowledge  of  drugs  gathered  in  my  father's  store,  and  of  chemistry 
from  the  course  given  at  the  Free  Academy*  by  Prof.  Wolcott  Gibbs  (after- 
ward Professor  of  Chemistry  at  Harvard  College),  who  inspired  his  students 
greatly,  to  permit  me  to  use  the  hours  allotted  to  these  studies  for  something 
else.  In  a  few  days'  time  he  said  he  had  arranged  it  so  that  I  could  go  each 
morning  for  one  or  two  hours  to  the  New  York  Hospital  and  make  the 
morning  rounds  with  the  House  Surgeon  and  his  staff  in  the  Second  Surgical 
Division  of  the  Hospital.  I  went  the  next  morning,  therefore,  to  the  hospital, 
was  introduced  to  the  House  Surgeon  of  the  Division,  Dr.  J.  H.  Hinton, 
whose  term  expired  within  two  months  of  my  entry,  when  Dr.  Henry  D. 
Noyes  became  House  Surgeon,  with  Dr.  Robert  Ray  and  Dr.  L.  B.  Baylies 
as  the  Senior  and  Junior  Walkers  as  they  were  termed  in  those  days.  Dr. 
Noyes  later  became  a  distinguished  oculist  and  was  a  trusted  surgeon  at  the 
New  York  Eye  and  Far  Infirmary.  This  was  in  1856.  The  New  York 
Hospital  at  this  time  occupied  the  whole  block  between  Worth  and  Duane 
ets,  excepting  a  fringe  of  stores,  100  feet  deep,  on  Broadway,  running  on 
each  side  from  the  hospital  entrance  to  the  corner — and  extended  back  its 
whole  depth  to  Thomas  Street.  Originally  started  in  1769  by  a  medical 
man,  Dr.  Bard,  but  not  opened  for  patients  until  1 79 1,  the  central  building, 
with  its  wide  hall  and  two  wings,  was  a  finely  proportioned  building,  three 
Stories    and    attic    in    height,    and    built    of    a    gray    colored    dark    stone    with 

appropriate    windows,    and    presented    a    decidedly    artistic    appearance,    en- 

cd   bj    the   ivy,   with   which   it   was  in   greater  part  Covered.      Its  stoop  was 


( College  of  the  Citj  of  New  '< 


PERSONAL    REMXNTSCEN'CES 


OF    THE    NEW    YORK    HOSPITAL 


large,  but  modern  in  appearance,  and  was  a  place  of  resort  to  the  young 
men  of  the  resident  staff,  three  in  number,  viz :  two  surgical  and  one  medical, 
who.  after  the  day's  duties  had  ceased  and  the  walkers  had  gone  home, 
gathered  together  to  smoke  and  talk  over  the  events  of  the  day.  At  each  end 
of  this  building  were  wards  for  women,  and  also  a  large  central  room,  on 
the  first  floor,  for  the  use  of  the  Governors  for  their  general  or  their  com- 
mittee meetings. 

I  remember  this  room  particularly  well,  for  on  the  sideboard  in  it  there 
was  at  all  such  meetings  placed  a  generous  supply  of  sandwiches  and  lemonade 
for  the  Governors  and  Attending  Surgeons,  and  sometimes  the  House 
Surgeons,  who  might  also  be  called  upon  for  reports  concerning  their  depart- 
ments. Alas,  the  House  Staff  only  occasionally  were  asked  to  partake  of 
these  refreshments.  Sometimes,  it  is  true,  after  the  meeting  had  adjourned,  a 
venturous  subaltern  would  make  a  raid  for  the  forage,  but  too  often  Peter, 
the  negro  waiter,  too  promptly  removed  the  remains.  I  shall  later  venture 
to  speak  of  some  of  the  Governors  whom  the  internes  or  House  Staff  saw 
or  met  in  the  wards  on  their  official  inspecting  rounds  and  learned  to 
appreciate  their  work  by  their  efficiency  and  kindliness.  The  staff  did  not 
care  to  know  the  Governors  in  their  special  room,  as  that  generally  meant 
some  reproof  for  an  offence  committed  or  of  a  duty  forgotten.  I  was  once  haled 
before  them,  it  having  been  reported  that  I  had  climbed  the. inner  front  gate, 
after  it  was  closed  at  night,  John,  the  surly  but  efficient  gatekeeper  having 
caught  me  in  the  act.  My  reprimand  was  not  severe  but  sufficient,  but  I 
always  avoided  the  Governors'  room  if  I  could.  Besides  this  inner  railing 
and  gate,  which  was  half-way  up  from  Broadway  to  the  hospital  building, 
there  was  an  entrance  on  Duane  Street,  closed  by  a  large  wooden  gate,  with 
a  huge  knocker,  for  entrance  of  supplies  and  injured  patients  coming  by 
carriage  or  cart,  for  there  was  no  ambulance  until  years  later.  The  old 
porter  who  managed  the  night  entrance  was  a  character.  He  was  called 
Jimmy,  but  what  other  name  he  had  I  never  knew — a  dirty,  unshaven  and 
unshorn  Irishman,  who  was  always  laughing  and  joking,  so  that  never  any- 
one grew  angry  with  him.  He  also  helped  at  times  at  the  autopsies,  in  the 
dead  house,  which  adjoined  the  gate-house,  from  which  he  derived  sundry 
mild  tip-;,  as  also  did  the  House  Staff,  from  the  coroners  and  their  assistants, 
who  were  glad  to  have  their  help  in  this  gruesome  work.  The  road  from 
Duane  Street  ran  to  the  entrance  of  the  three  hospital  buildings  and  was 
pa\  »-i|  with  the  so-called  Belgian  pavement,  that  is  to  say,  with  small  square 
blocks  of  -tones  laid  endways.  The  noise  made  by  entering  carts  and  carriages 
at  night  time  was  decidedly  disturbing,  it  being  heralded  by  the  repeated 
thundering-  of  the  big  iron  knocker.  The  indoor  night  watchman  in  the 
central   building   received   the  patient  and,   as  with  the  day   incoming  patients, 

made   the   usual    record   of    identification,   ami    this  concluded,   notified    the 


PERSONAL    REMINISCENCES 


House  Surgeon  on  duty,  who  assigned  the  injured  person  to  the  night  ward 
and  in  the  morning  following  transferred  the  patient  to  his  bed  in  the  main 
ward — thus  avoiding  disturbance  at  night  time  in  the  general  ward.  The 
patients  were  visited  by  the  House  Surgeon  or  physician  with  their  senior 
and  junior  walkers  each  morning  at  half-past  eight,  when  the  necessary 
examinations,  prescriptions  and  dressings  were  made,  except  when  the  dress- 
ings were  important  or  lengthy.  In  such  cases,  they  were  postponed  until 
the  end  of  the  visit,  after  which  the  House  Surgeon  usually  made  the 
first  dressing  after  an  operation,  when  this  was  not  done  by  the  Attending 
Surgeon,  and  subsequently  turned  over  the  same  to  the  senior  walker,  in 
whose  immediate  province  were  left  the  cases  of  amputations,  compound  and 
simple  fractures  and  severe  wounds.  To  the  junior  walker  were  left  the 
bandaging  and  strapping  of  ulcers,  burns  and  the  like.  This  latter  officer, 
Dr.  Robert  Ray,  I  assisted  first  by  handing  adhesive  plaster,  bandages,  pins 
and  scissors  as  required,  and  as  time  passed,  and  I  mastered  the  use  of  these 
rudiments,  I  was  allowed  gradually  to  divide  his  work  as  he  directed. 

I  have  already  described,  poorly  I  fear,  the  main  building  with  its 
four  wards — two  female  medical  and  two  female  surgical,  though  in  my 
description  I  omitted  stating  that  over  the  Governors'  room  was  another,  a 
very  large  one,  used  as  a  library,  filled  with  racks  for  many,  many  medical 
books  and  bound  medical  journals,  foreign  and  native,  which  was  under  the 
care  and  supervision  of  Dr.  John  L.  Vandervoort,  who  was  a  stiff,  severe, 
spare  man,  who  apparently  had  never  joked  in  all  his  life,  who  nevertheless 
had  so  well  nursed  his  library  on  the  scanty  funds  supplied  him  by  the 
Governors  that  at  the  period  1855-60  it  was  considered  one  of  the  best  of  its 
kind  in  the  country,  comparing  well  with  those  of  the  New  York  Academy  of 
Medicine  and  of  the  College  of  Physicians  in  Philadelphia.  This  library,  if 
I  may  forestall  my  narrative,  was  eventually  dismantled  and  dispersed  when 
the  old  hospital  was  surrendered  and  sold  for  business  purposes  in  1870. 
This  sale  was  followed  by  the  purchase  of  a  new  site  and  a  rebuilding 
in  its  present  locality  in  West  Fifteenth  Street,  which  was  opened  for  patients 
in  1877.  The  other  wards  of  the  hospital  were  situated  in  two  buildings, 
one,  the  older,  was  on  the  Worth  Street  side,  a  two-story  and  attic  building, 
was  erected  in  the  early  part  of  the  century  and  so  unfitted  for  the  modern  care 
of  the  sick  that  it  was  but  seldom  used,  except  for  storage  purposes  or  for 
overflow  patients  from  the  other  buildings.  In  my  resident  hospital  time 
there  was  frequently  a  negro  ward  in  operation  there.  That  ward  I 
remembered  well,  for  I  was  very  much  puzzled  once  when  I  was  House 
Surgeon  to  correctly  diagnose  the  trouble  of  an  old  darky  who  had  a  painful 
swollen  leg.  I  finally  asked  the  House  Surgeon  of  the  other  division,  a  Dr. 
Bell  from  Virginia,  to  come  over  and  see  the  patient.  He  glanced  at  the 
negro  and  said  at  once,  "He's  got  erysipelas."     "Erysipelas,"  I"  replied,  "Why 


OF    THE    NEW    YORK    HOSPITAL 


then  this  leg  should  be  redder  than  the  other.''  "It  is,"  he  said,  "in  the 
negro  (nigger,  he  styled  him),  the  more  red  he  gets,  the  blacker  he  is."  He 
was  right,  only  I  didn't  then  know  it.  Dr.  Bell  left  the  hospital  when  I  did 
in  i860  and  went  to  Richmond,  Virginia.  I  continued  in  New  York,  however, 
until  the  Civil  War  had  broken  out,  when  I  joined  the  12th  New  York  State 
Militia  as  Assistant  Surgeon  vice  Dr.  Bell,  who  had  resigned.  In  the  haste  of 
departure  to  the  front,  I  could  not  buy  or  have  made  the  proper  uniform.  I 
knew  where  Bell  had  lived  in  New  York,  and  on  going  there  found  that  he  had 
left  sundry  trunks  behind,  so  I  wired  him  (this  was  just  before  Virginia 
seceded)  and  asked  him  to  sell  me  his  uniform,  to  which  he  consented. 

Late  in  1865,  after  the  war,  of  course,  was  over,  one  day  on  the  hospital 
stoop  I  met  him,  just  in  from  the  South.  I  had  heard  that  he  had  lost  his 
wife  during  the  war,  but  when,  I  did  not  know,  so  after  greeting  him  I  said 
a  polite  word  or  two  of  condolence,  but  he  interrupted  me  with,  "Oh,  I've 
got  another  one !" 

The  principal  building  was,  however,  the  South  or  Marine  Building, 
which  was  situated,  as  one  of  its  names  indicates,  on  Duane  Street,  though 
not  opening  into  that  street,  as  its  entrance  faced  the  south  end  of  the  main 
building.  It  was  a  lofty,  plain-looking  granite,  four-story  and  basement 
structure,  with  high  ceilings  and  a  specially  good  (for  those  days)  ventilating 
apparatus.  It  had  eight  large  wards,  holding  each  twenty  to  twenty-five 
patients,  which  ran  on  each  of  the  four  upper  floors,  the  full  length  of  the 
building  on  each  side  of  the  broad  main  stairway.  The  lower  floor  was 
divided  into  four  small  wards,  one  surgical  for  children,  one  medical  for 
children  and  old  broken  down  pensioners  of  the  hospital,  and  the  third  for 
alcoholic  patients.  I  don't  remember  the  use  of  the  fourth  room  on  the  floor, 
but  I  think  it  must  have  been  a  supplementary  storeroom  or  for  the  Assistant 
Superintendent.  The  alcoholic  ward  was  quite  largely  patronized.  It  had 
adjoining  it  one  or  two  padded  rooms  to  prevent  the  patients  injuring  them- 
selves when  unruly  or  excited.  It  was  sometimes  the  scene  of  ludicrous  antics 
on  the  part  of  its  delirious  inmates.  Once  when  temporarily  acting  as  House 
Physician  I  found  a  man  standing  arched  on  his  feet  and  outstretched  hands 
whirling  round  in  one  spot  and  wildly  shouting,  "Help,  Help!"  On  inquiry 
the  nurse  told  me  that  the  man  thought  the  devil  had  hooked  him  in  the  seat 
of  hi-  rrou>c]s  and  was  trying  to  pull  the  patient  up  to  him.  A  narcotic  soon 
relieved  him,  however.  Another  time  I  found  a  man  standing  solemnly  on 
a  reversed  pot  de  chambre,  saying  nothing  hut  smiling  contentedly.     If  from 

ie  or   In    an    intentional    push,   he   was   forced    from    his   resting   place,   he 

yells  ot  pain  until  lie  regained  his  desired  base  ot  support.  It  appeared 
that    he    was    an    electrician    and    believed    that    he    was    surrounded    by    strong 

trie  currents  and  Ins  onl}  safety  was  In  thus  insulating  himself. 
Reverting  to  the  description  ot   tin-   Marine  Building,   I   would   further 


PERSONAL    REMINISCENCES 


state  that  this  building,  with  its  fine  operating  room  at  its  top,  holding  some 
250  students  (there  was  another  operating  room,  larger  and  somewhat 
antique  on  the  top  floor  of  the  main  building,  I  omitted  to  state)  was  largely 
filled  by  injured  and  sick  seamen,  who  obtained  free  treatment  here,  by  virtue 
of  a  financial  arrangement  with  the  U.  S.  Treasury  Department.  The 
remaining  building  not  yet  described  was  a  low  two-storied  stone  affair  that 
backed  up  against  the  stores  on  Broadway  between  the  Broadway  entrance 
and  Duane  Street.  It  was  close  to  the  Duane  Street  gate  and  adjoined  the 
deadhouse,  and  in  it  were  kept,  under  the  charge  of  a  salaried  medical  officer 
as  curator,  the  numerous  specimens  derived  from  interesting  operations  and 
post  mortem  examinations.  Many  of  these  were  valuable  in  themselves,  or  as 
interesting  mementos  of  momentous  epochs  in  surgery.  It  is  said  that  the 
unintentional  exposure  of  some  of  these  dried  preparations  to  the  view  of 
passers-by  in  Duane  Street  brought  about,  in  1788,  a  disturbance  by  which 
several  lives  were  lost  before  the  "Doctor's  Riot,"  as  it  was  called,  was 
quelled  by  the  militia.  This  pathological  department  was,  after  he  had 
passed  through  his  house  surgeonship,  under  charge  of  Dr.  Ray  as  Curator, 
and  in  my  loose  position  of  dresser,  I  often  aided  him  in  his  preparations  and 
added  somewhat  to  my  knowledge  of  what  had  been  done  and  sometimes 
what  should  not  have  been  done  by  the  surgeons  of  the  past  and  the  present, 
and  finally  in  i860  succeeded  him  as  Curator.  As  the  fifth  wheel  to  a  coach 
I  tramped  the  wards  of  the  hospital,  picking  up  all  the  time  useful  bits  of 
knowledge  and  attending  fairly  well  my  various  college  lectures,  and  doing, 
perfunctorily,  I  admit,  my  dissecting  work  for  nearly  two  years,  and  had 
begun  my  cramming  up  preparatory  to  entering  upon  my  examination  by  the 
Medical  Board  of  the  Hospital  for  the  regular  position  of  junior  walker, 
when  I  was  laid  up  for  many  weeks  by  an  attack  of  typhoid  fever,  contracted, 
as  Dr.  Buck  and  Dr.  Isaac  Wood  (a  famous  Quaker  physician  of  those  days) 
said,  during  my  hospital  work,  so  I  did  not  pass  the  Board  of  Examiners 
until  December,  1858,  and  was  thenceforth  truly  on  the  hospital's  list  of 
medical  officers.  Unluckily,  by  reason  of  my  illness,  my  graduation  as  a 
Doctor  of  Medicine  was  postponed  to  the  commencement  of  the  College  of 
Physicians  and  Surgeons  in  the  spring  of  1859.  For  my  thesis  (required  to 
be  presented  for  graduation),  I  had  selected  the  subject  of  cerebral  hernia, 
.  having  seen  at  the  hospital  and  become  interested  in  two  cases  of  this  rather 
rare  complication  of  fractures  of  the  skull,  and  on  Commencement  night  was 
greatly  dismayed  to  hear  my  name  called  out  as  the  recipient  of  the  first  thesis 
prize.  I  could  not  rise  up  I  was  so  excited  and  did  so  only  when  Prof. 
Joseph  M.  Smith  of  the  Faculty  called  out,  "Please  stand  up,  Dr.  Weir,  your 
modesty  equals  your  merit."  Aside  from  this  distinction,  so  unexpected, 
was  the  pleasing  honorarium  of  fifty  dollars — my  first  professional  fee,  so  to 
speak.     By  this  time,  April,  1859,  I  became  a  veritable  junior  walker.     The 


OF    THE    NEW"    YORK    HOSPITAL 


original  House  Staff  of  the  Second  Surgical  Division,  to  which  I  had  been 
fastened  by  Dr.  Buck,  had  finished  their  terms  of  service,  each  grade  con- 
tinuing eight  months,  and  were  replaced  by  Dr.  G.  A.  Quinby  as  House 
Surgeon,  Dr.  J.  J.  Hull  as  Senior  Walker  and  myself  as  Junior  Walker.  Dr. 
Quinby  became  one  of  the  surgeons  to  St.  Luke's  Hospital,  but  marrying 
wealth,  he  soon  gave  up  practice,  but  while  in  the  profession  started  a 
brougham,  on  the  rear  panel  of  which  he  placed  his  initial  Q,  instead  of,  as 
usual,  on  the  door.  Dr.  Van  Buren  said  that  that  was  correct,  as  the  queue 
must  always  be  worn  in  the  rear.  Dr.  Hull,  my  immediate  superior,  became 
later  one  of  the  surgeons  at  St.  Luke's  Hospital,  and  my  successor  in  office, 
Dr.  D.  B.  St.  John  Roosa,  then  my  Senior  Walker,  became  a  distinguished 
aurist  and  the  founder  and  head  of  the  New  York  Post  Graduate  School 
and  Hospital.  Dr.  S.  B.  Tuthill,  my  Junior  Walker,  was  a  fine  violinist  and 
the  life  of  our  social  gatherings.  He  died  shortly  after  leaving  the  hospital. 
The  attending  surgeons  at  that  time  were  Dr.  Gurdon  Buck,  of  whom 
I  have  already  spoken,  and  Dr.  John  Watson,  a  testy  man  with  a  large  and 
useless  acquaintance  of  the  fathers  of  medicine  in  their  original  language, 
of  whom  I  recall  that  during  my  interne  service  he,  assisted  by  Dr.  Markoe 
(for  with  the  two  surgical  divisions  one  of  the  surgeons  on  duty  always 
assisted  the  other  one),  operated  for  the  removal  of  several  large  glandular 
tumors  from  the  neck.  Dr.  Watson  had  made  a  fine  exposure  of  the 
parts  and  had  removed  several  of  the  enlarged  glands,  when  a  small  vessel 
was  cut  and  as  it  spurted,  Dr.  Watson  seized  it  with  a  clamp  and  told 
Dr.  Markoe  to  ligate  it.  Dr.  Markoe,  who  admired  a  neat  surgical  dissec- 
tion, said,  "How  finely  you  have  cleaned  that  out,  Dr.  Watson,"  and  made 
"one  or  two  more  expressions  of  compliment.  "Never  mind  that,"  said  Wat- 
son sharply,  "Devil  take  it,  will  you  or  will  you  not  tie  that  vessel,  Dr. 
Markoe?"  Also  a  vestryman,  like  the  other  surgeon,  Dr.  Markoe  said,  "Devil 
take  it,  I  will,"  and  made  the  demanded  ligature.  Dr.  William  H.  Van 
Buren,  a  large  man  of  superb  figure  and  elegant  manners,  and  from  whom  the 
staff  learned  much,  was  another  attending  surgeon  ;  so  was  Dr.  T.  M.  Markoe, 
a  very  pleasant  gentleman,  but  who  leaned  strongly  on  Dr.  Van  Buren  for 
advice,  and  of  whom  Dr.  H.  B.  Sands  (a  later  member  of  the  staff  and  a  man 
of  distinction  and  ability)  said  that  he  had  "crystallized  early  in  life";  still 
another  was  [)r.  T.  M.  Halstead,  a  nephew  of  one  of  the  Governors,  a  stout, 
-.hort  man  of  indifferent  ability,  but  much  loved  by  the  House  Staff  for  his 
affability.  As  junior  walker,  my  principal  business,  when  he  was  on  duty,  was 
to  wipe  frequentl)  liis  freely  perspiring  face  and  brow  while  he  was  operating. 
Just  before  I  began  my  interne  service,  Dr.  Willard  Parker  was  also 
appointed  Attending  Surgeon.  He  resigned  after  a  short  service  on  account 
f.t  lu's  immense  private  surgical  work,  lie  was  a  tall,  well-made  man,  very 
ere<  t,  with  frock  coat  always  buttoned  and  a  manner  attractively  magnetic. 


10 


PERSONAL    REMINISCENCES 


OF    THE    NEW    YORK    HOSPITAL  11 


conjoined  to  a  cheery  Laugh  that  endeared  him  to  vis  all.  He  was  always 
pressed  for  time  and  hurried  through  the  wards.  He  said  to  me  once  when 
I.  as  House  Surgeon,  ushered  him  into  the  wards,  that  the  by-laws  required 
him  "to  see  every  patient  once  a  week,"  and  then  taking  a  deliberate  stare 
around  the  ward  and  without  advancing  farther,  turned  on  his  heel  and  went 
out.  Those  six  surgeons  in  the  two  surgical  divisions  were  able  only  each 
to  have  two  months  in  the  male  and  female  surgical  wards  of  the  Main 
Building  and  two  months  in  the  Marine  Building,  where  the  male  patients, 
principally  seamen,  were.  As  they  annually  allotted  themselves  the  year's 
work  it  was  at  times  varied.  To  obtain  the  benefit  of  the  surgery  of  both 
sexes,  the  House  Staff  also  changed  from  one  building  to  the  other  every 
four  months.  At  that  time  the  term  of  service  of  the  House  Staff  was  two 
years — eight  months  in  each  grade.  Later  it  was  made  six  months  in  each 
grade. 

The  Consulting  Surgeons  in  1859  were:  Valentine  Mott,  facile  princeps. 
He  was  a  particularly  neat,  elderly  man,  with  a  rosy,  fine  complexion,  very 
scantv  white  hair  and  short  side  whiskers,  who  frequently  moved  his  lips 
without  speaking.  He  had  been  an  attending  surgeon  of  the  hospital  for 
over  twenty  years  and  was  then  made  a  Consulting  Surgeon.  He  was  also  the 
Professor  of  Surgery  at  the  recently  established  University  Medical  College. 
He  seldom  engaged  in  private  work,  though  I  once  saw  him  operate.  It  was 
for  a  case  of  aneurism  of  the  subclavian  artery,  which  was  so  large  that  the 
blood  vessel  between  it  and  the  heart  could  not  be  tied  to  promote  the  coagu- 
lation of  the  blood  in  it  and  thus  bring  about  a  cure,  and  hence  in  the  consulta- 
tion held  by  Drs.  Buck  and  Markoe,  in  whose  charge  the  case  was,  with  Dr. 
Mott  called  in  with  them,  it  was  decided  to  tie  the  blood  vessel  on  the  distal 
side  of  the  aneurism  and  in  this  way  bring  about  the  desired  blood  coagulation. 
a  poorer  but  the  only  way  remaining  for  such  cases.  The  family  of  the 
patient  chose  Dr.  Mott  to  operate  and  Dr.  Buck  took  me  with  him  to  see 
him  do  it.  Dr.  Mott  said  he  would  have  to  tie  the  vessel  just  below  the 
clavicle.  They  all  agreed  that  that  was  the  best  and  only  thing  to  be  done — 
SO  with  the  man  etherized,  instruments  ready  and  arm  stretched  out  to  fully 
expose  the  axilla  and  held  steadily  by  Dr.  A.  B.  Mott  ("my  son,  Alexander," 
as  hi-  father  always  called  him,  to  show  us,  one  said,  that  he  came  from, 
bur  !v, r  ///>  to  him)  —  Dr.  Valentine  Mott,  with  one  stroke,  four  inches 
long,  of  his  scalpel,  cur  through  skin,  fascia  ami  arterial  sheath,  exposed 
tin-  arterj  in  the  middle  of  the  axilla  and  tied  ir  within  two  minutes,  a 
wonderfully,  brilliant  operation,  I  said,  as  I  walked  awaj  afterwards  with 
Dr.  Markoe  and  I  asked  his  opinion  of  it  and  of  its  probable  result.  He 
said,  and  he  was  rit_dit  as  I  learned  In  after  experience,  that  the  ligation  was 
too  fat  awaj  to  do  an)  good  and  was  nor  in  the  place  agreed  upon,  and  that  it 
wa-  a  ven    dangerous  exhibition  ot  a  surgical   tOUr  de  lone.     '1  he  patient    was 


12  PERSONAL    REMINISCENCES 

not  improved  by  the  surgery  rendered  and  died  a  few  weeks  later  from  the 
progress  of  the  disease. 

The  other  Consulting  Surgeons  were  Dr.  R.  H.  Hoffman,  T.  M.  Chees- 
man,  A.  H.  Stevens  and  A.  C.  Post.  Dr.  Hoffman's  surgical  career  was 
unknown  to  the  internes  except  in  one  instance  which  all  the  staff  gossiped 
about  and  told  their  successors  in  turn.  It  was  based  upon  the  fact  that  Dr. 
Hoffman  at  one  time  in  his  life  had  been  a  naval  surgeon.  In  a  certain  cruise 
he  injured  one  of  his  toes,  which  vexatiously  grew  painfully  worse,  so  that  in 
his  distress  he  amputated  his  own  toe.  This  was  in  the  days  before  anesthetics 
were  known.  We  all  felt  that  the  deed  was  heroic.  I  have  only  known  one 
thing  to  compare  with  this  and  that  was  where  a  physician  operated  on  himself 
for  appendicitis.  Here,  however,  he  had  the  aid  of  cocaine,  which  made  the 
operation  fairly  painless. 

Dr.  Cheesman  was  for  over  thirty  years  one  of  the  attending  surgeons, 
but  the  surgical  history  of  the  time  does  not  show  much  evidence  of  his  work. 
He  grew  wealthy  in  his  general  practice,  had  a  fine  mansion  in  Fifth  Avenue, 
and  was  much  interested  in  our  endeavors  to  control  the  frequent  cases  of 
pyaemia,  etc.,  that  occurred  in  our  wards.  He  felt  that  it  was  due  to  infection 
by  the  surgeon  and  often  urged  the  staff  to  be  more  careful  in  the  care  of 
their  instruments,  which  he  thought,  might  inoculate  the  operation  wounds, 
and  said  that  he  would  leave  a  small  legacy  to  the  hospital,  the  income  from 
which  should  be  devoted  to  the  improved  care  of  them,  if  that  could  be  done. 
Whether  he  did  so  or  not  I  never  heard,  as  a  few  years  later  we  learned 
definitely  how  to  prevent  germs  getting  into  wounds,  and  that  the  instru- 
ments were  easily  rendered  aseptic,  and  that  other  agencies  than  these,  as  the 
hands,  clothes  and  dressings  of  the  surgeon  and  of  his  assistants  were  more 
likely  to  bring  infection  to  a  wound.  Dr.  Cheesman's  personal  appearance 
was  both  striking  and  attractive.  I  remember  him  distinctly.  He  was  a 
large,  solid-looking  man  with  a  big  head,  which  looked  larger  than  it  was 
from  an  abundant  growth  of  long,  white  hair ;  with  this  was  a  rosy  com- 
plexion and  big  chop  and  chin  whiskers.  He  had  a  positive  method  of  speaking 
and  his  words  generally  commended  attention. 

Dr.  Alexander  H.  Stevens  was  in  appearance  and  surgical  abilities  a 
strong  contrast  to  Dr.  Cheesman.  Dr.  Stevens,  who  was  then  President  of  the 
College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons,  whose  building  was  at  that  time  in 
Crosby  Street,  was  a  tall,  thin,  cadaveric  looking  man,  lank  and  yellow,  with 
a  pronounced  seriousness  of  manner  that  invariably  impressed  the  students. 
He  had  been  a  noted  surgeon  and  in  some  respects  was  considered  a  rival  of 
Mott.  He  was  a  brother  to  Mr.  John  A.  Stevens,  who  was  a  Governor  of 
the  hospital  for  over  forty  years. 

Dr.  Alfred  C.  Post,  the  last  of  our  consulting  surgeons,  had  served  the 
hospital  as  Attending  Surgeon  from  1836  to  1853,  was  a  painstaking,  learned 


OF    THE    NEW    YORK    HOSPITAL  13 

surgeon,  of  a  spare  habit,  with  a  narrow  face  and  clipped  gray  whiskers  and 
moustache.  He  had  great  precision  in  his  speech  and  in  his  enunciation  he 
would  unconsciously  draw  back  the  corners  of  his  mouth  so  strongly  as  to 
simulate  an  energetic  smile.  He  was  Professor  of  Clinical  Surgery  at  the 
University  Medical  College,  where  his  method  of  speech  and  fondness  for 
words  of  Greek  derivation  at  times  amused  the  class.  He  was,  however, 
an  excellent  teacher.  I  ventured  in  later  years  to  bait  him  once  in  a  medical 
society  when  presenting  a  patient  whose  thigh,  crooked  from  a  badly  united 
fracture,  had  been  relieved  and  straightened  by  breaking  the  bone  over  again. 
I  announced  it,  with  a  sly  glance  at  Dr.  Post,  as  a  case  of  dysmorphosteo- 
diaclasis  (  which  literally  meant  dys— difficult,  morpb — an  abbreviation  for 
shape  or  form,  osteo — derived  from  osteon,  a  bone,  and  diaclasis — a  breaking 
through,  or  a  total  meaning  of  breaking  a  bone  for  malposition).  Dr.  Post 
rose  to  this  and  asked  two  or  three  times  to  have  it  repeated,  then  wrote  it 
down,  thought  over  it  several  minutes,  and  expressed  his  gratification  at  such 
a  succinct  description  of  the  operation.  I  regret  that  I  could  not  accept  his 
compliments  and  had  to  tell  him  that  I  had  picked  it  up  in  a  recent  German 
Medical  Journal.  His  son,  Dr.  Geo.  L.  Post,  was  a  classmate  with  me  at 
the  Free  Academy  and  afterwards  rose  to  eminence  as  the  founder  of  the 
well-known  Missionary  Hospital  at  Beirut  in  Syria.  But  to  return  to  our 
Dr.  Post,  he  was  a  regular  attendant  at  the  various  medical  societies  of  the 
v." i r \  and  had  always  a  specimen  of  some  kind  in  his  coat  tail  pockets.  Once 
he  presented  the  thigh  of  a  chicken  which  he  had  found  at  his  dinner  and 
which  showed  a  marked  swelling  near  its  joint  end.  Finishing  his  descrip- 
tion of  it  he  said  he  could  not  determine  its  nature  until  after  a  microscopic 
examination  of  it.  "I  can  tell  you  now,"  said  Dr.  Metcalfe,  "it  is  a  '//^chon- 
droma'"    (enchondroma — a   cartilaginous   growth),   which   raised   a,  smile. 

I  must  out  of  politeness,  as  well  as  from  a  desire  to  be  complete  in  my 
recollections  of  my  interneship,  mention  briefly  the  medical  officers.  Recollect, 
however,  I  beg  my  reader,  that  not  serving  under  them  prevented  somewhat 
my  knowing  them  and  their  foibles  as  well  as  I  knew  the  surgical  staff. 

The  onl)  Consulting  Physician  then  was  Thomas  Cock,  a  Quaker, often  de- 
scribed as  of  large  abilities,  and  he  was  seen  by  the  staff  but  seldom  and  then  only 
at  special  consultations.  Here  I  might  remark  that  in  i860  there  were  several 
physicians  in  New  York  of  marked  ability  who  were  Quakers,  and  that  in  the 
Board  of  Governors  not  a  few  Quakers  have  been  at  various  times  enrolled 
among  their  members — notabl)  I  recall  the  names  of  Mr.  George  Trimble  and 
Mr.  Samuel  WilletS.  I  think  that  Mr.  Joseph  Walker  was  also  of  this 
rcli'_':»u~   sect.      Dr.   C01  k's  colleague,    Dr.    F.   U.  Johnston,   had  died   in    iSsH, 

ng  ;i>  attending  physician  twent}  years — two  years  before  I  became 
Junior  Walker.  Twentj  to  thirtj  years,  was  about  the  average  term  of  dutj 
in  the  wards  of  the  attending  physicians  and  surgeons.      The  notable  excep- 


14  PERSONAL    REMINISCENCES 

tions  to  this  were  Dr.  J.  M.  Smith,  thirty-seven  years  as  Attending  Physician, 
Dr.  Gurdon  Buck  and  Dr.  T.  M.  Markoe,  who  each  were  forty  years 
Attending  Surgeons.  Having  alluded  to  one  of  the  medical  staff,  who  had 
passed  beyond  my  ken,  I  want  to  speak  of  another  physician  to  the  hospital, 
who  left  its  service  before  my  time,  but,  who  in  my  later  years,  became  one 
of  my  best  and  respected  friends.  I  refer  to  Dr.  John  T.  Metcalfe,*  now  dead, 
but  then  Professor  of  Medicine  in  the  University  Medical  College.  He  was 
not  only  an  excellent  physician  and  teacher,  but  by  his  kindly  wit  and 
alluring  ways  became  the  most  loved  of  all  his  fellows.  He  helped  the  young 
doctor  and  cheered  the  older  ones.  He  gave  good  dinners  and  invited  all  of 
us  who  behaved  themselves,  as  he  said,  to  his  table,  which  was  always  of  the 
best,  even  when  the  piece  de  resistance  was  corn  beef  and  cabbage.  (On 
that  occasion  I  tasted  the  best  dish  of  this  kind  that  I  ever  ate.)  I  would 
like  to  quote  at  length  some  of  his  says,  but  space  is  wanting  to  do  but  little 
in  this  line  and  moreover,  I  understand  that  his  friend,  Dr.  Henry  F.  Walker, 
has  in  preparation  his  biography,  when  Dr.  Metcalfe's  social  qualities  will 
be  amply  represented.  My  only  contribution  in  this  direction,  aside  from 
the  incident  I  shall  now  narrate,  I  venture  to  add  in  a  footnote  to  this  page. 
My  anecdote  of  him  is  that  later  in  life  Dr.  A.  B.  Ball  and  I  had  a  medical 
case  in  charge  which  had  some  doubtful  surgical  symptoms  connected  with  it. 
One  evening  the  patient  became  worse  and  it  was  suggested  by  the  family  that 


*  Dr.  Metcalfe  was  continually  slipping  in  the  envelopes  of  the  friends  to  whom 
he  was  writing  little  rhymed  squibs  on  the  quack  medicines  or  medical  follies  of  the 
day.  I  happen  to  have  preserved  several  of  his  verselets  purporting  to  come  from 
physicians  and  others  high  in  the  public  standing  advocating  the  merits  of  the  Hun- 
yadi  Janos  Water,  much  used  as  a  laxative  many  years  ago.  The  first  one  purports 
to  come  from  Dr.  Gerry  Wynkoop,  and  reads:  "Dr.  Sherrywine  Coope  says  of  this 
water — 

"Is  your  Uncle  constipated, 

Or  your  Aunt  or  old  Grandaddy? 
If  they  want  their  primae  viae  cleared 
Just  give  some  Hunyadi." 

The  world-renowned  ophthalmologist,  Dr.  C.  Arrag  New    (C.  R.  Agnew),  says: 

"Oh,  'tis  I'm  the  finished  Oculist, 

And  Corney  is  my  name ; 
Just  like  the  late  C.  Vanderbilt, 

I'm  not  unknown  to  fame. 
I'll  cure  you  quicker'n  wink,  my  boy, 

And  you'll  say  I  oughter, 
For  now  the  only  wash  I  use 

Is  pure  Hunyad-I-Water." 

Professor  Henrid  Raper   (Henry  Draper)   says  of  it: 

"Are  you  given  to  Astronomy? 

Then  just  drink  Hunyadi  Janos. 
Mar's    satellite   you   may   not   find, 

But  sure   vou'll   find    Uranus." 


OF    THE    NEW    YORK    HOSPITAL  15 

Dr.  Metcalfe  be  sent  for  to  aid  us.  This  was  done  and  he  speedily  appeared, 
leaving,  as  we  learned  from  him,  a  dinner  party  at  his  house.  The  patient 
was  visited  and  examined  carefully  and  we  retired  to  confer  about  the 
diagnosis  and  treatment.  Finally  Dr.  Metcalfe  remarked,  "Boys!  this  case 
is  yet  obscure  and  is  one  for  further  and  strict  observation.  We  must  watch 
and  pray.     You  remain  here  to  watch  and  I'll  go  home  and  prry!" 

The  Attending  Physicians  were  Dr.  John  H.  Griscom,  who  had  attained 
a  reputation  as  a  sanitarian,  but  from  what  the  medical  internes  said  was 
iess  respected  than  the  other  physicians.  Dr.  H.  D.  Bulkley,  another  attend- 
ing physician,  was  afterwards  President  of  the  Academy  of  Medicine.  He 
was  a  careful,  painstaking  man  and  largely  interested  in  the  treatment  of 
skin  diseases  in  which  he  made  a  decided  reputation.  Of  him  Dr.  Metcalfe 
is  quoted  as  saying  that  Bulkley  was  great  on  a  pimple,  but  a  boil  was  too 
much  for  him.  The  ablest  man  of  that  staff  was  conceded  to  be  Dr.  T.  F. 
Cock,  the  son  of  the  Consulting  Physician,  Dr.  Thomas  Cock.  Dr.  Joseph 
M.  Smith,  the  oldest  of  the  Attending  Physicians,  who  was  appointed  in 
1829,  was  very  much  respected  by  all  the  staff.  He  had  been  Professor  of 
Medicine  in  the  old  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons,  and  wag  in  i860 
the  Professor  of  Materia  Medica  in  the  same  college.  His  experience  was  a 
large  one,  based  on  facts,  but  not  on  causes,  for  nearly  all  such  were  unknown 
until  Pasteur  showed  us  that  the  cause  of  disease  was  largely  of  germ  origin, 
an  explanation  that,  through  Lister  and  many  others  since,  has  changed  be- 
yond realization  our  understanding  of  disease  and  our  methods  of  cure.  Dr. 
Smith  was  always  exceedingly  neat  in  his  appearance,  and  with  his  white, 
scanty  hair,  smooth  and  red-veined  face  and  gold-bowed  spectacles,  conjoined 
to  a  dapper  slight  figure  inclined  to  embonpoint,  he  attracted  people  to  him. 
I  never  saw  him  provoked  or  angry.  He  was  very  cautious  in  the  use  of 
medicines  and  told  me  once  not  to  give  more  than  five  grains  of  the  iodide 
ot  potassium  at  a  dose.  The  rest  of  the  staff  were  using  it  in  ten  to  thirty- 
grain  doses  and  at  times  even  carried  it  to  one  ounce  a  day  with  benefit.  He 
died  in  1866.  At  his  funeral  it  was  stated  that  he  had  excelled  most  Chris- 
tians by  reading  the  Bible  from  and  to  vnd  thirty-four  times,  moreover, 
the  officiating  clergyman  added,  practicing  what  he  learned. 

Shortly  after  I  had  penned  these  very  imperfect  descriptions  of  the 
medical  worthies  of  the  hospital  during  ni\  early  career  there,  I  discovered 
that  there  existed  in  the  New  York  Acadenn  ot  Medicine  a  photograph  taken 
at  the  request  ot  Dr.  Buck  tor  the  purpose  of  u>iiiLr  sundry  of  the  figures  in 
the  cutting  ot  the  medal  to  he  given  by  Dr.  Harsen  tor  the  best  report  of 
the  clinics  of  the  New  York   Hospital.     There  had  been  two  pictures  made, 

one    in    which    I    appeared    In     virtue   ot    being    Curator,    and    another   without 

me,  Dr.  Watson  having  justlj  objected  to  mj   presence  in  the  photograph  as 

rot   belonging  virtualU    to  the   medical   and   surgical   stall.       However,   no   nunc 


16 


PERSONAL    REMINISCENCES 


Fig.  3 
HARSEN   PRIZE  MEDAL 


Second  Photograph  whence  medal  was  made. 
Left  to  right: 

i.  Dr.  J.  G  Acheson  6 

2.  Dr.  Fred  Sturgis  7 

3.  Mr.  C.  H.  Smith,  student  8 

4.  Dr.  D.  B.  St.  John  Roosa  9 


Dr.  Gordon  Buck 
Dr.  B.  Miller 
Dr.  Robert  F.  Weir 
Mr.  Alfred  North 


5.  Dr.  S.  B.  Tuthill  10.  Mr.  Norman  Smith 

This  is  the  list  as  made  conjointly  by  Drs.  Weir  and  Roosa. 


OF    THE    NEW    YORK    HOSPITAL  17 

pictures  were  then  or  later  taken,  and  the  one  in  which  I  was  proved  to  be 
the  better  one  was  retained,  with  Dr.  Weir  blotted  out.  This  photograph 
is  much  faded,  but  from  it,  however,  a  cut  has  been  made  (see  Fig.  2). 
These  photographs  were  not  used  after  all  for  the  Harsen  medal,  but  two 
others  were  taken  subsequently,  more  suitable  for  the  purpose.  From  the  sec- 
ond one  of  these  the  medal  was  made,  and  on  the  obverse  side  of  it  (Fig.  3)  is 
seen  Dr.  Buck,  showing  a  surgical  case  to  a  group  of  students,  as  per  list  under 
the  print  of  the  medal.*  But  the  photograph  from  which  this  was 
made  I  have  not  been  able  to  Hnd.  I  have,  however,  secured  the  first 
one**  and  the  names  of  those  who  made  up  the  group  to  whom  Dr.  Buck, 
the  central  figure,  is  lecturing.  They  are:  Drs.  Acheson,  Tuthill,  Mr. 
Darrach,  the  Superintendent,  Drs.  Hull,  Weir,  Buck,  Fischer  and  C.  D. 
Smith. 

The  photograph  from  which  Fig.  No.  4  has  been  made  shows,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  house  staffs,  the  Superintendent  and  the  apothecary,  Mr.  Darrach 
and  Mr.  Johnson  of  that  period,  and  is,  I  think,  of  sufficient  historical  in- 
terest to  warrant  its  insertion  here. 

The  prize  continued  to  be  given  for  many  years,  attracting  many  students 
to  the  hospital,  until  by  consent  of  the  Harsen  heirs  it  was  changed  and,  in 
1892,  the  money  was  diverted  to  other  purposes.  Should  I  ever  leave  money 
to  an  institution  for  any  particular  purpose,  I  should  have  provision  made 
that  the  bequest,  if  not  used  as  directed,  should  lapse,  and  be  given 
to  my  oldest  surviving  female  relative.  A  woman  would  make  a  strenuous 
try  for  it. 

I  have  ambled  and  rambled  a  long  time,  perhaps  tiresomely,  about  the 
doctors  of  the  hospitals.  I  would  now  like  to  say  here  something  about  its 
superintendents  and  apothecaries.  Mr.  Darrach,  as  I  have  intimated, 
was  not  much  liked  by  the  internes;  they  didn't  trust  him,  not  that  he 
wasn't  honest  and  faithful,  but  he  was  too  religiously  polite.  He  seemed 
to  be  a  good  officer,  however,  but  his  successor,  Mr.  Robert  Roberts,  or 
"Bob"  Roberts  as  we  all  called  him,  for  he  smoked  and  joked  with  us,  was 
from  our  standpoint  a  more  capable  and  likable  official.  Of  the  apothecaries, 
Edward  W.  Johnson  was  a  competent  man,  a  good  story  teller  and  sang  a  song 
well,  and  was  an  agreeable  companion  to  the  House  Staffs  in  their  little 
jollifications.      Mr.    Rauschenberg,  who  succeeded   him,  was  a  superior  man 


■  l)r.  linfk  had,  in  tin-  interval  between  the  two  Harsen  photographs,  evolved  his 
now  celebrated  traction  method  of  treating  fractures  of  the  thigh,  ami  hence  pre- 
ferred   nol    to    Use    the    photograph    now    shown,    which    exhibited    the    old-lime    method 

ot   treating  such  fractures. 

'*  In  ih<-  medal  (engraved  from  the  hist  photograph)  I  appear  ;is  the  House 
Surgeon,  holding  the  badge  o\  that  position,  the  hand  case  of  instruments,  the  term 
,,t  Dr.  Hull,  th<-  previous  House  Surgeon,  having  then  expired. 


18 


PERSONAL    REMINISCENCES 


In  this  photograph,  loaned  by  the  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons,  Dr.  J.  J.  Hull  is 
the  House  Surgeon.  This  is  not  the  photograph  from  which  the  Harsen  Prize  Medals  were 
struck.     In  this  photograph  the  old  method  of  treating  fractures  is  pictured. 


Fig.  4 


Left  to  right:  Dr.  James  H.  Little;  Mr.  Ed.  W.  Johnson,  the  apothecary;  Dr.  S. 
Harris;  Dr.  F.  J.  Sturges;  Mr.  C.  H.  Smith;  Dr.  Henry  F.  Fisher;  Dr.  Gurdon  Buck;  Dr. 
Robert  F.  Weir;  Dr.  J.  J.  Hull;  Superintendent  Darrach;  Dr.  S.  B.  Tuthill;  and  Dr.  J.  C. 
Acheson,  all  being  internes  except  Dr.  Buck,  the  superintendent  and  the  apothecary. 

(One  behind  and  between  Sturges  and  Smith  not  recognized.) 


OF    THE    NEW    YORK    HOSPITAL  19 

not  given  to  levity,  and  of  much  help  in  our  variations  of  antiseptic  materials. 
After  Mr.  Roberts  left  the  hospital,  it  had  an  unfortunate  experience  with  a 
medical  superintendent,  hoping  to  have  here  the  success  the  Roosevelt  Hospital 
had  in  its  medical  superintendent,  who  was  a  very  capable  and  tactful  man,  but 
it  didn't  and  he  soon  left.  Then  the  New  York  Hospital  Governors  appointed 
Mr.  George  P.  Ludlam  as  Superintendent,  who  ably  filled  the  position  for 
more  than  thirty  years.  He  knew  his  business  and  did  it.  He  was  somewhat 
positive  and  strict,  but  he  generally  was  right  In  what  he  said  and  did.  When 
he  was  goaded  by  the  sharp  and  sudden  onset  of  a  testy  Governor,  he  never 
showed  it.  I  have  seen  him  under  fire  and  respected  the  man,  as  the  Board 
of  Governors  generally  did  also. 

I  shall  wind  up  with  a  few  words  concerning  the  old  nurses.  The 
principal  figure  in  this  department  in  the  care  of  the  sick  and  injured 
is  Old  Black  Aunty  Robinson,  who  held  sway,  literally,  in  the  top  ward 
of  the  main  house,  devoted  then  to  female  venereal  patients.  It  needed 
a  firm  and  kindly  soul,  and  such  she  had,  to  manage  these  derelicts,  so 
many  of  whom  were  strongly  self-willed.  Not  infrequently  would  one 
appear  with  looks  above  the  average  and  then  Aunty's  sleepy  looking 
eyes  would  see  a  little  too  much  attention  to  the  patient  given  by  the 
House  Surgeon  or  one  of  his  staff,  and  then  he  and  she  would  receive  such 
an  admonition,  so  efficiently  but  kindly  presented,  that  it  was  invariably 
effectual.  Aunty  took  pride  in  her  position  and  thought  it  was  part  of  her 
work  to  look  after  the  comforts  of  the  House  Surgeon  of  the  first  surgical 
division,  which  was  in  the  building  where  she  was  nurse.  The  House  Staff 
all  liked  her  and  always  remembered  her  on  Christmas  and  other  holidays 
and  birthdays.  Aunty,  however,  was  not  by  far  the  oldest  of  the  nurses. 
Mr-.  Jackson  was  that.  The  title  of  Mother  Jackson  was  given  to  her  on 
account  of  her  age  and  gentle  dignity.  She,  in  i860,  was  in  charge  of  a 
small  ward,  holding  ten  or  twelve  patients,  on  the  ground  floor  of  the  Marine 
Building.  This  contained  usually  some  four  or  five  paralytics  and  a  few  old 
pensioners  of  the  hospital.  She  was  a  frail,  wrinkled  old  woman,  nearly,  if 
not  passed,  seventy  years,  with  a  quickness  of  step,  and  occasionally  of  tongue, 
that  astonished  people.  She  often  gossiped  of  the  past,  and  said  proudly  that 
she  had  seen  \)r.  Buck  as  a  tow-headed  youth  going  through  the  wards 
taking  notes  with  a  quill  pen  and  a  bottle  of  ink  hung  from  a  buttonhole  of 
hi--  coat. 

Th<-  ward  opposite  Mrs.  Jackson's  was  of  the  same  size  and  was 
appropriated    to    the   care   of    injured    children,   and    was   under    the   charge  of 

Mrs,  Mac  a-  she  was  usually  called.  Children  with  medical  diseases  were 
treated  in  the  female  medical  ward,  where  a  large  stout  nurse  with  a  very 
plea-ant,  kind  face  that  did  not  belie  her  character,  was  in  charge.  That  was 
Ml       Beaslee.      She   and    Mrs.    McCullum    were    great    friends.      Mrs.    Mac 


20  PERSONAL    REMINISCENCES 

was  the  essence  of  cheerfulness  and  gentleness  to  her  charges.  Dr.  Buck  * 
always  spoke  of  her  ward  as  that  of  "minor  surgery."  It  was  in  her  ward 
that  the  first  case  of  a  fractured  thigh  was  treated  by  the  improved  extension 
method  devised  by  Dr.  Buck.  I  think  with  pleasure  that  I  put  on  the  straps, 
pulleys  and  weights,  as  he  then  directed.  This  method  of  treatment  spread, 
I  may  say,  all  over  the  world  and  has  held  sway  up  to  the  present  time  as 
one  of  the  best  for  such  injuries. 

As  for  the  male  nurses,  they  were  as  their  fellows  of  that  day.  Ordi- 
narily of  Irish  extraction,  with  an  intermixing  occasionally  of  Swedish  blood, 
they  carried  out  the  directions  as  well  as  they  were  able.  Fairly  clean  and 
tolerably  reliable,  they  did  as  well  as  could  be  expected  when  neither  they 
nor  the  doctors  knew  how  wrongly  each  was  unconsciously  treating  an  injury. 
The  only  exception  I  would  in  justice  make  was  in  favor  of  the  male  nurse 
of  Ward  G  of  the  Marine  Building.  He  was  neat,  intelligent  and  reliable. 
His  name  partially  was  William — the  rest  has  gone  from  my  memory.  He 
was  no  longer  young  and  must  have  by  now  joined  the  great  majority. 

Of  the  other  nurses  and  house  servants,  I  remember  nothing.  I  only 
recall  that  there  seemed  to  be  a  continued  lot  of  scrubwomen  about,  who 
were  at  all  times  and  everywhere  cleaning  and  sanding  the  wooden  floors 
that  then  prevailed.  They  made  them  as  neat  and  white  as  the  decks  of  a 
man-of-war. 

I  have  ranged  in  my  lengthy  pages  from  the  heights  occupied  by  the 
Consulting  Staff  down  to  the  level  of  the  old-time  nurses,  but  the  distance 
and  rapidity  of  my  fall  will,  I  trust,  in  rebound  carry  me  upwards  again  and 
perhaps  even  to  a  higher  level — so  high,  that  I  can  now  with  propriety  allude 
to  what  is  one  of  the  hospital's  chief  distinctions.  I  refer  to  its  very  respect- 
able and  rather  peculiar  Board  of  Governors.  Admirable  in  its  business 
procedure  for  over  a  century  in  which  its  members  have  been  drawn  from 
what  is  best  in  our  city's  life,  whether  from  the  ranks  of  commerce,  law  or 
inherited  wealth,  so  well  and  wisely  has  it  done  its  work  that  among  all 
citizens  of  note  it  is  regarded  as  a  high  compliment  to  be  chosen  one  of  its 
members.     Not  only  is  it  enviable  from  this  point  of  distinction,  but  many  of 


*  Dr  Buck  had  occasional  witty  attacks.  One  is  worthy  of  note  for  itself  and 
for  its  sequel.  He  disapproved  of  the  numerous  specialties  that  were  occupying 
various  parts  of  the  body.  He  believed  that  there  was  much  truth  in  Dr.  Oliver 
Wendell  Holmes'  definition  of  a  specialist,  as  a  person  who  had  a  vast  amount 
of  useless  information.  On  being  asked  by  a  young  physician  what  specialty  would 
be  a  good  one  to  follow,  he  said  sarcastically,  "Try  the  Umbilicus — nothing  doing 
there  yet."  On  hearing  his  reply,  it  was  gravely  suggested  that  there  were  already 
many  Naval  Surgeons.  As  I  write  this  joke  of  Dr.  Buck,  my  eye  happened  to  catch 
an  advertisement  in  one  of  our  just  issued  medical  journals  entitled  "Cullen  on  the 
Umbilicus  and  its  Diseases" — in  octavo  of  775  pages — quite  a  comment  on  Dr.  Buck's 
remark. 


OF    THE    NEW    YOEK    HOSFITAL  21 

the  Governors  were  also  of  marked  social  weight,  and  ofter  because  they  were 
Governors  of  the  New  York  Hospital.  A  Board  that  has  existed  nearly  one 
hundred  and  fifty  years  without  any  slur  against  its  management  is  entitled 
to  heartfelt  praise  and  admiration.  They  have  another  peculiarity  which  is 
that  there  is  a  certain  heredity  attached  to  the  office.  Look  at  their  annual 
catalogues,  which  contain  a  list  of  the  Governors  and  doctors  since  the 
institution  was  started.  You  will  be  struck  to  find  the  Beekmans,  for 
instance,  recorded  as  members  for  four  generations  (father,  son,  or  other 
relative,  maybe),  the  Murrays  for  seven  generations  (or  times),  Kennedy  and 
many  others  two  or  three  times,  and  so  on.  As  you  look  over  the  hospital 
reports  your  eye  will  naturally  turn  to  its  list  of  donors — that  list  is  smaller 
than  one  would  expect,  though  many  liberal  gifts  have  been  made.  One  word 
further  about  this  worthy  Board — it  is  remarkable  that  but  four  physicians 
have  ever  been  made  Governors.  Two  of  these  appointments  were  of  London 
physicians  and  were  purely  complimentary.  One  of  the  two  remaining,  a  Dr. 
Williamson,  was  elected  in  1814,  and  of  whom  little  is  known.  The  fourth 
was  Dr.  Wm.  W.  Hoppin,  elected  1877,  who  died  in  1913,  and  who  was  a 
very  efficient  Governor.  Of  the  earlier  Governors  that  I  have  been  most 
intimately  thrown  with,  socially  and  officially,  I  keenly  remember  several. 
The  first  of  all  is  Mr.  George  T.  Trimble,  who  was  President  of  the  hospital 
when  I  first  went  there.  He  spoke  to  me  when  he  first  saw  me  in  the  wards 
in  his  usual  kindly  way,  but  when  I  told  him  that  I  had  been  a  scholar  in 
the  old  Public  School  No.  7  in  Chrystie  Street,  when  he  was  president  of  the 
Public  School  Board  (afterward  merged  into  the  Board  of  Education  of 
New  York  City),  he  smiled  upon  me  and  with  his  hand  laid  upon  my 
shoulder  wished  me  success  in  my  profession.  No  better  advisers  and  friends 
did  I  have  or  helpers  in  our  little  disturbances  at  the  hospital  (with  the 
Superintendent,  usually,  for  he  was  hard  on  the  staff,  but  suave  and 
obsequious  to  the  Governors),  than  Mr.  Joseph  Walker,  the  finest  and 
kindliest  of  them  all,  Mr.  Philip  Schuyler  and  Mr.  William  Turnbull,  a 
tower  of  mighty  strength  for  defense  against  a  certain  new  Governor,  who 
kept  things  alive  by  much  faultfinding.  With  Mr.  Turnbull  were  associated 
in  his  endeavors  to  obviate  medical  explosions,  Mr.  Fordham  Morris  and 
Mr.  T.  B.  Wbolsey,  and  particularly  Dr.  W.  W.  Hoppin.  At  times  there 
seemed  to  crop  out  among  the  Governors  a  little  of  the  feeling  shown  (but 
much  diluted)    by   Mr.  dcIVyster  in  earlier  years,  when  he,  as  Dr.  Buck  told 

:iid  to  the  Governors  that  the  only  way  to  treat  the  doctors  of  the  hospital 
Was  to  "keep  their   feet  on   their   necks." 

Onlj  two  or  three  ot  the  attending  surgeons  or  physicians  gave  instruc- 
tion (1860-70)  to  the  few  medical  students  that  followed  them  through  the 
ward-  on  appointed  days,  generallj  once  a  week.  When  a  case  required  an 
operation,  a  notice   was  sent,   it    time     permitted,  bul  not   regularly,  to  the 


22  PERSONAL    REMINISCENCES 

then  existing  medical  colleges,  to  be  posted  on  their  bulletin  boards.  Unless 
the  operation  was  of  especial  importance  not  many  students  appeared,  except 
on  Saturday,  when,  as  there  were  no  lectures  given  in  the  afternoon,  they 
could  more  readily  attend  hospital  clinics.  The  distance  of  the  hospital  from 
the  three  colleges  was  considerable — the  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons 
was  in  Twenty-third  Street,  the  University  Medical  College  was  in  Four- 
teenth Street,  and  the  third  college,  now  defunct  and  its  name  forgotten, 
was  in  Thirteenth  Street.  This  latter  college  had  in  its  corps  Dr.  Carnochan, 
a  noted  surgeon,  and  more  important,  the  two  Flints,  father  and  son,  who 
subsequently  joined  themselves  to  the  later  born  Bellevue  Hospital  Medical 
College.  The  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons  had  only  recently  moved 
from  Crosby  Street  to  its  new  location  in  Twenty-third  Street  where,  in 
spite  of  the  activity  of  the  contractors,  their  inauguration  night  arrived  with 
the  last  touches  completed  in  only  one  of  their  several  halls.  The  ceremonies 
went  off  as  advertised,  but  when  the  audience  attempted  to  rise  they  couldn't, 
being  more  or  less  fixed  by  the  stickiness  of  the  varnish  on  the  benches.  Dr. 
Van  Buren  subsequently  remarked  that  the  speeches  were  too  ornate  and 
that  the  audience  would  have  preferred  a  plain  unvarnished  tale,  but  Dr. 
Dalton,  one  of  the  speakers,  said  they  listened  with  fixed  attention. 

The  fame  of  the  New  York  Hospital  had  steadily  increased  during  the 
last  fifty  years,  due  mainly  to  such  surgical  celebrities  as  Mott,  Wright  Post, 
Stevens,  Rodgers  and  others,  and  it  was  recognized  by  the  profession  at  large 
as  the  leading  one  in  the  country.  In  addition  to  the  professional  ability  of 
its  staff,  the  hospital  itself,  by  its  locality  and  management,  became  the 
recipient  of  nearly  all  the  injured  and  diseased  from  the  country  adjacent  for 
over  a  hundred  miles  around  the  city.  Cases  arrived  daily  in  carts,  coaches 
and  trains  from  the  neighboring  villages  and  small  towns,  and  often  from 
unwarrantable  distances — for  remember  that  the  village  hospital,  that  now 
so  much  and  so  promptly  relieves  suffering,  did  not  then  exist.  Sad  it  was, 
however,  that  often  a  life  was  lost  in  this  endeavor  to  reach  the  great  medical 
center.  The  building  of  the  Erie  Railroad,  which  required  the  construction 
of  the  famous  Bergen  tunnel  and  its  long  continued  blasting  efforts,  was  asso- 
ciated (in  my  interne  service)  with  many  mishaps  and  numerous  injuries. 
Also  nearly  all  the  acute  surgery  of  the  city,  then  with  about  500,000  inhabi- 
tants, came  to  the  New  York  Hospital. 

There  were  other  places  of  refuge  for  them  to  go  to,  however.  The 
most  notable  of  these  was  the  old  Bellevue  Hospital,  but  its  reputation  for 
the  care  of  its  patients  was  most  unfavorable,  and  none  but  the  very  poorest 
would  consent  to  go  there,  but  as  the  poor  ye  have  always  with  you,  it  was 
crowded  and  its  medical  wards  were  attractive  to  students  for  the  numbers 
of  its  fever  cases,  etc.  The  fame  of  the  distinguished  Drs.  Alonzo  Clark, 
John  T.   Metcalfe  and  Austin  Flint,   Sr.,  was  largely  made  in  and   justly 


OF    THE    NEW    YORK    HOSPITAL  23 

prized  by  this  hospital  for  the  poor  of  New  York.  There  was  also  the 
comparatively  new  St.  Luke's  Hospital  at  54th  Street  and  Fifth  Avenue, 
now  the  site  of  the  University  Club,  and  other  buildings.  Likewise  there 
existed  in  West  nth  Street,  St.  Vincent's  Hospital,  which,  though  small, 
gave  evidence  by  its  church  support  of  its  destiny  to  become,  as  it  now  is,  one 
of  the  largest  and  best  managed  hospitals  in  the  city,  and  at  the  least  expense 
too.  There  were  a  few  other  hospitals,  mainly  for  special  diseases,  but  for 
acute  surgery  they  did  but  little. 

"With  all  its  admirable  staff,  the  practice  of  the  New  York  Hospital, 
looked  at  through  the  spectacles  of  today,  was  bad.  Not  bad  contrasted  with 
other  hospitals  of  that  period,  but  bad  from  the  ignorance  that  then  existed 
of  the  causes  of  diseases,  the  knowledge  of  which,  even  at  this  day,  however 
much  enlightenment  may  have  come  to  us,  is  yet  not  perfect. 

The  custom  that  existed  when  I  was  House  Surgeon  and  where  the 
need  of  an  operation  arose,  was  somewhat  like  this — say,  for  an  amputation 
for  a  compound  fracture,  or  an  artery  ligation  for  aneurism  in  the  neck  or 
thigh  or  the  like.  The  Attending  Surgeon  would  direct  the  House  Surgeon 
to  send  out  notices  to  all  the  physicians  and  surgeons  of  the  hospital,  includ- 
ing the  Consulting  Staff,  to  appear  the  next  day,  or  earlier  if  urgent  and  time 
permitted,  when  the  case  would  be  presented  to  them  for  examination. 
Thence  going  to  the  operating  room,  each  one  present,  beginning  with  the 
Senior  Consulting  Surgeon  or  physician  (often  approaching  senility)  was 
asked  in  turn  for  his  opinion.  Often,  when  six  or  eight  were  present,  there 
was  a  great  variety  of  views.  No  acting  judgment  was  usually  arrived  at  and 
delay  ensued.  The  folly  of  these  polite  meetings  impressed  me  as  a  junior, 
so  much  so,  that  in  my  subsequent  life  I  shunted  consultations  as  much  as 
possible,  believing,  for  professional  action  that  they  should  rarely  exceed  one 
meeting ;  or,  if  more,  generally  as  a  concession  in  private  practice  to  the 
formula  urged,  that  the  family  would  like  to  feel  that  everything  had  been 
done  for  the  departed.  In  hospital  service  I  called  in  the  colleague  on  duty 
for  the  quickest  counsel.  Passing  by  this  little  explosion  about  consultants 
and  the  delays  thereby  often  occasioned,  let  us  proceed  to  the  operation  itself 
when  it  was  determined  on.  The  senior  walker  was  expected  to  lay  out  the 
possibly  required  instruments;  they  had  been  resting  on  a  velvet  lined  shelf 
or  were  bedded  in  velvet-lined  slits  in  an  adjoining  closet.  He  would  put 
them  on  the  table  covered  with  a  towel  and  then  examine  the  operating  table 
and  make  inquiries  of  the  nurse,  who  was  at  other  times  a  ward  nurse,  about 
thr  sponges,  which,  having  been  washed  out  from  a  previous  operation,  had 
been  kept  in  a  wooden  pail  of  fresh  water.  I'ine,  beautiful  and  soft  looked 
thcj  when  taken  from  the  pad  out  of  the  water  and  placed  in  a  basin  for  the 
nurse  or  one  of  the  walker-,  to  hand   to  the  surgeon  or  to  the   House  Surgeon 

during  the  operation.    Sometimes  the  surgeon  and  the  assistants  washed  their 


24  PERSONAL    REMINISCENCES 

hands  previously — sometimes  not — but  they  put  on  clean  checked  aprons  or 
gowns,  and  did  not  wear,  as,  up  to  many  years  later  did  the  British  surgeons, 
old  coats  stained  by  the  bloody  daubs  of  previous  operations.  No,  we  did  not 
do  as  badly  as  that.  We  then  usually  washed  the  skin  of  the  limb  when  an 
amputation  was  to  be  done,  as  was  frequently  required  for  a  compound  frac- 
ture of  the  leg  or  thigh,  and  for  this  we  used  the  nice-looking  sponges  that 
were  filled  with  disease  germs  from  previous  operations  which  had  been 
quietly  multiplying  while  resting  in  their  pailful  of  water.  Fingers,  laden 
with  germs  in  large  quantities  on  them  or  under  the  nails,  were  stuck  into 
the  wounds  we  made  and  we  further  introduced  (alas,  all  this  was  uncon- 
sciously done)  infectious  and  often  fatal  germs  by  the  brilliant  and  apparently 
clean  instruments  we  employed.  After  we  had  done  all  this  we  tied  blood 
vessels  with  strings  with  long  ends,  so  that  we  might  pull  them  out  when  they 
loosened  themselves  from  the  tied_  arteries,  not  knowing  that  they  and  the 
stitches  to  close  up  the  wound  only  allowed  more  germs  to  enter  to  the 
depths  of  our  operation  wounds.  Furthermore,  we  dressed  our  wound  with 
wax  cerates  kept  in  jars  open  to  germ-laden  dust,  and  smeared  over  lint  with 
foul  spatulas  and  wiped  off  with  surgically  dirty  (as  we  now  say)  towels.  In 
the  wards  it  was  worse— dressings  were  made  with  unwashed  hands,  wounds 
were  wiped  by  clean-looking  but  dangerous  sponges,  and  disease  germs  were 
then  carried  unknown  from  patient  to  patient  by  the  doctor  as  well  as  the 
nurse.  The  House  Surgeon,  with  his  soiled  and  well-worn  instrument  case, 
was  also  a  sorry  carrier  of  infection.  He  equaled  the  Borgias.  Were  it  not 
that  in  our  bodies  we  had  a  set  of  cells  of  which  the  most  important  were 
the  so-called  white  blood-corpuscles,  the  phagocytes  of  which  Metchnikoff 
discovered  their  function  to  be  to  destroy  the  noxious  germs  entering  a 
wound,  the  loss  of  life  would  have  been  much  greater.  Metchnikoff  clearly 
demonstrated  that  these  cells  swarmed  from  the  blood-vessels  at  the  infected 
point,  promptly  ate  them  up  (hence  their  name,  phagocytes),  digested  them 
and  subsequently  cast  the  remnants  away.  We  do  not  wonder  now  why  in 
the  surgical  wards  erysipelas  was  always  rife  and  why  that  strange  and 
fearful  disease  called  hospital  gangrene  appeared  as  a  thick,  grayish  mould 
over  the  wounds  with  an  intense  burning  pain  accompanied  by  high  fever 
and  rapid  loss  of  strength — a  disease  that  so  rapidly  and  so  completely  disap- 
peared under  the  use  of  antiseptics  or  germ-killers  that  no  chance  later 
occurred  for  its  microscopical  investigation  or  detection  of  the  special  germ 
by  which  it  is  caused.  Hence  this  particular  germ  and  its  nature  remain 
unidentified  to  this  day.  Besides  these  two  serious  and  almost  uncontrollable 
complications  of  wounds  and  injuries,  there  was  yet  another,  more  serious  and 
terrible  from  our  inability  to  cope  with  it — I  mean  pyaemia,  or  blood-poison- 
ing, as  it  was  then  called.  To  go  into  a  ward,  for  instance,  and  inquire,  How 
is  Jones    (with   his   week-old    compound    fracture)    doing   today?    and    have 


OF    THE    NEW    YORK    HOSPITAL 


the  nurse  say  he  had  a  chill  this  morning — to  look  at  his  wounded  leg  did 
not  help  the  diagnosis.  There  was  nothing  of  the  irregular  blush  of  erysipelas 
or  of  the  gray  coating  of  hospital  gangrene  to  be  seen.  Later  in  the  day, 
or  on  the  morrow,  the  report  would  be,  Jones  had  another  chill  last  night 
and  another  one  this  morning  about  six  o'clock.  Then  we  knew  what  was 
coming.  The  poor  fellow's  wound  had  become  infected,  as  we  said,  which 
infection,  about  which  we  then  knew  little  or  nothing,  had  passed  into  his 
system  and  was  setting  up  abscesses  in  his  lungs,  liver  and  other  organs. 
The  issue  in  most  cases  was  fatal.  In  700  amputations  that  I  had  in  the 
military  hospital  under  my  charge,  1861-65,  in  only  one  case  did  I  have 
what  was  called  primary  union  of  the  stump,  that  is  to  say,  a  stump  entirely 
free  from  infection  of  a  mild  or  severe  form.  While  looking  back  on  the 
many  lives  lost  by  our  ignorance  and  by  our  well-intentioned,  but  poisonous 
efforts,  I  do  not  regret  this  trying  experience,  for  it  presented  in  greater 
brilliancy  the  good  attained  by  the  investigations  and  teachings  of  the 
immortal  Lister.  Prior  to  his  time,  1865-70,  compound  fractures  of  the 
lower  extremities  produced  a  mortality  of  over  38%  and  in  the  major  amputa- 
tions involving  the  larger  extremities  the  mortality  was  28%.  Contrast  this 
with  the  Listerian  treatment  of  similar  compound  fractures,  with  a  mortality 
of  but  one  death  in  200  cases,  and  of  similar  amputations,  where  the  death 
rate  was  but  23/2%.  Realize,  too,  that  these  results  can  now  be  attained  by 
the  most  junior  intelligent  tyro!  Sir  Spencer  Wells  received  well-deserved 
credit  for  adding  30,000  years  of  life  to  his  patients  by  his  brilliant  operations 
for  ovarian  tumors,  but  the  outcome  of  Listerism  has  been  epoch-making 
in  the  history  of  the  world,  and  its  influence  is  still  daily  widening — embrac- 
ing now  not  only  the  arrest  or  prevention  of  surgical  infection,  but  by  its 
enlargement  of  direction  has  controlled  many  of  the  infections  of  other 
diseases  beyond  the  surgical  ones.  The  prediction  has  been  made,  and  with 
justice,  that  within  fifty  years,  and  perhaps  in  less  time  than  that,  all  the 
present  known  germ  diseases  will  have  been  analyzed  and  arrested !  Alas, 
however,  the  millennium  would  not  then  be  attained,  for  with  this  ability  to 
control  and  obviate  our  known  diseases,  we  by  that  time  shall  have  probably 
uncovered  and  discovered  new  diseases,  requiring  perhaps  other  and  yet 
unknown  methods  of  prevention  or  cure. 

I  pochs  in  surgery  do  not  arrive  frequently.  The  first  one  was  developed 
\i:  Ambrose  Pare  in  the  sixteenth  century,  when  he  substituted  the  ligature 
for  the  hot  iron,  in  the  arrest  ot  hemorrhage;  the  second  one  of  importance  in 
time  was  that  ot  anaesthesia  by  Morton  in  1S47;  the  third  was  the  antiseptic 
treatment  of  wounds  In    Lister  in    [865-7OJ  ,nr  fourth   was  the  utilization 

of    the    X-ray    in    medicine    and    SUrgerj     In     Roentgen    in     iS<)5.       May    the 

twentieth  centur)  exceed  'lie  nineteenth  centurj  in  tins  respect  as  well  as  in 
others. 


2(3  PERSONAL    REMINISCENCES 

Dr.  Bull  at  the  Chambers  Street  Hospital,  and  I  at  St.  Luke's  and  the 
Roosevelt  Hospital  had  early  used  the  antiseptic  treatment,  and  I  had,  from 
a  larger  opportunity,  been  able  to  test  and  confirm  its  efficacy,  and  therefore 
had  published  frequent  papers  on  that  subject.  When  in  London  in  1884,  I 
embraced  the  occasion  to  be  introduced  to  Lister  by  our  Dr.  Marion  Sims, 
who  rather  fulsomely  presented  me  to  him  as  the  apostle  of  Listerism  in 
America — I  could  only  make  the  small  correction  by  saying  that  I  was  but  a 
disciple,  not  an  apostle.  Several  years  later  Dr.  Bull  and  I  made  the  rounds 
of  the  great  hospitals  in  Europe  to  study  the  many  improvements  and  simpli- 
fications of  Lister's  method,  and  found  that  the  principle  of  the  germ  treat- 
ment remained  unassailable.  We  saw  and  learned  a  good  deal,  but  returned 
with  a  conviction  reaffirmed  that  American  surgery  occupied  as  high  a  level 
as  that  of  any  country.  Some  surgeons  in  foreign  lands  knew  more  than 
American  surgeons  did,  but  the  dexterity  and  applicability  of  the  latter  more 
than  evened  the  two. 

Shortly  after  leaving  the  New  York  Hospital  in  1861  and  going  to  the 
war,  I  determined,  as  soon  as  I  appreciated  that  the  military  contest  would 
last  longer  than  the  three  months  prophesied  in  its  beginning,  to  enter  the 
U.  S.  Army  Medical  Corps,  and  went  up  for  the  required  examination. 
I  was  lucky  enough  to  pass  and  came  out  the  fifth  in  the  long  list,  thinking 
perhaps  I  might  have  done  better  had  I  had  time,  which  I  hadn't,  to  read  up 
for  the  trial.  During  the  examination  I  thought  my  chance  of  passing  was 
gone  when  Dr.  McDougal,  a  testy,  stout,  white-haired  army  surgeon,  and 
chairman  of  the  board,  asked  me  in  sharp  tones  to  give  him  the  symptoms  and 
treatment  of  pneumonia.  I  enumerated  them.  "But,"  he  said,  "you  have  not 
mentioned  bloodletting — wouldn't  you  employ  it?"  "No,"  I  replied,  "I 
wouldn't."  "But,  Doctor  Weir,  if  I  had  pneumonia,  wouldn't  you  bleed 
me?"  "No,"  I  firmly  said,  "that  day  has  gone  by."  "Then  I  wouldn't  like 
to  have  you  for  my  doctor,"  retorted  he.  But  his  bark  was  worse  than  his  bite. 
I  passed  the  board  and  was  first  assigned  to  the  Second  U.  S.  Cavalry  just 
up  in  Maryland  from  Texas,  where  it  had  been  under  the  command  of  Col. 
Robert  E.  Lee,  who  afterwards  seceded  with  his  state  and  became  the  great 
soldier  of  the  Confederacy.  The  commander  of  the  regiment  to  whom  I 
was  ordered  to  report  was  Col.  George  H.  Thomas,  later  the  celebrated 
General  Thomas — familiarly  known  by  his  trusted  officers  and  soldiers  as 
"Pap  Thomas."  He  and  I  received  our  commissions  the  same  day,  his  as 
brigadier-general  and  mine  as  assistant  surgeon,  and  took  together  the  oath 
of  allegiance  customary  on  such  occasions.  As  intimated  on  a  previous  page 
(7),  I  was  shortly  after  placed  in  charge  of  the  U.  S.  A.  General  Hospital 
at  Frederick,  Maryland,  which,  with  its  3,000  beds,  became  the  base  hospital 
of  the  battles  of  Sheridan  and  others  in  the  Shenendoah  Valley,  of  McClellan 
at  South  Mountain  and  Antietam,  and  largely  of  the  terrible  fight  at  Gettys- 


OF    THE    NEW    YORK    HOSPITAL  27 

burg  by  Meade,  and  received  official  commendation  of  my  work  from  the 
Surgeon  General.  Twice  during  this  period  did  the  New  York  Hospital 
appear  on  the  scene  in  the  persons  of  Drs.  Buck,  Post,  Peters  and  Markoe,  who, 
sent  by  the  sanitary  commission,  came  to  us  after  the  Antietam  and  Monocacy 
battles,  and  gave  great  help  by  their  operations  and  advice.  It  was  on  one 
of  these  visits  that  Dr.  Buck  became  much  interested  in  a  disabled  sol- 
dier, Bergher,  by  name,  who  had  been  treated  at  his  regimental  camp  for 
an  attack  of  pneumonia,  for  which  he  had  been  given  large  and  repeated  doses 
of  calomel,  which  induced  a  profuse  salivation  followed  rapidly  in  his  weak- 
ened condition  and  as  his  lung  trouble  improved,  by  a  rapid  gangrene  of 
his  mouth,  worse  on  the  left  side,  that  progressed  so  fiercely  that  when  he 
arrived  at  the  General  Hospital  we  found  that  the  whole  left  cheek  in  its 
entire  thickness,  from  the  tooth  edge  of  the  lower  jaw  to  just  below  the 
lower  lid,  and  from  the  masseter  muscle  transversely  to  and  involving  the  left 
side  of  the  nose,  had  been  destroyed  and  was  a  rotten  mass.  This,  as  it 
melted  away  or  was  trimmed  off  by  our  scissors,  revealed  in  addition  that 
most  of  the  left  upper  jawbone  was  necrosed.  This  horrible  deformity  ap- 
pealed to  the  Surgeon  General  who  saw  the  case,  and  induced  him  subsequently 
to  cut  out  calomel  from  the  supply  list  of  the  army,  and  also  to  Dr.  Buck,  who 
had  had  a  large  experience  in  plastic  surgery  and  in  the  remedying  of  severe 
facial  defects.  Dr.  Buck  said  he  would  like,  if  the  patient  were  willing,  to 
have  him  sent,  when  he  got  his  justly  entitled  discharge  papers,  to  the  New 
York  Hospital  for  the  proposed  surgical  treatment.  Thither,  in  due  course  of 
time,  did  the  man  go,  and  by  a  series  of  operations  during  the  course  of  several 
months,  Dr.  Buck  was  able,  by  sliding  skin  from  the  neck,  temple  and  lips, 
together  with  dental  aid,  to  replace  the  lost  upper  jawbone,  to  fill  up  the  huge 
gap  with  new  flesh  and  restore  the  patient,  though  much  necessarily  scarred, 
to  an  effective  condition  and  not  too  offensive  to  a  neighbor's  eye. 

A  less  severe  and  somewhat  more  amusing  instance  of  Dr.  Buck's  plastic 
surgery  came  to  me  several  years  later.  A  man  who  had  totally  lost  his  nose 
from  disease  from  which  he  had  fully  recovered,  however,  asked  help  for  its 
restoration.  This  Dr.  Buck  accomplished  by  taking  a  thick  flap,  going  to  the 
bone,  from  the  patient's  forehead,  and  turned  it  downward  so  as  to  cover 
the  nasal  gap  whose  edges  had  been  vivified  first  by  his  scalpel,  and  to  which 
the  flap  was  duly  fastened  In    many  stitches.      In  doing  this,  however,  it  is 

-ary.  of  course  (in  order  to  have  the  skin  side  out),  to  twist  a  little 
tin-  base  <>j  tin-  flesh  which  is  at  the  root  of  the  nose.  This  requires  care, 
and  trouble  often  comes  from  the  twist,  as  it  may  undul\  press  the  veins 
slenderer  than  the  arteries  and  so  induce  a  venous  congestion,  and  0CCa- 
sionalh  sloughing  of  the  Hap.  This  did  occur  in  this  instance,  the  con- 
gestion,  I   mean,  not  the  sloughing.     Dr.   Buck  saved   the  congested   Hap  by 

putting    into    pla\     the    de\  ire    suggested    In     a    French    Surgeon,    who,    finding 


28  PERSONAL    REMINISCENCES 

that  pricking  the  flap  did  not  let  out  enough  blood  or  that  the  prickholes 
quickly  were  plugged  by  the  coagulated  blood,  put  one  or  two  leeches  at  the 
end  of  the  flap,  and  so  by  renewal  of  these  living  suckers  prevented  the 
threatened  sloughing.  To  do  this  more  thoroughly,  Dr.  Buck,  finding  that 
each  leech  drew  off  about  one  to  two  drachms  of  blood,  put  two  on  the  nose 
flap.  When  the  leeches  had  fairly  taken  hold,  he  cut  off  their  tail  ends,  and  thus 
a  steady  drop  of  blood  from  this  artificial  vent  was  kept  up  for  several  hours 
without  cessation.  By  that  time,  Nature,  by  enlarging  the  veins  or  by  accom- 
modating herself  to  the  twist  pressure,  allowed  the  circulation  of  the  flap  to  be 
carried  on  without  risk.  I  saw  this  man  a  month  later  and  noted  an  interest- 
ing point  while  talking  to  him.  A  fly  lighted  on  the  end  of  his  new  nose  and 
I  was  surprised  to  see  him  rapidly  try  to  dislodge  it  by  slapping  his  forehead. 
"Why  do  you  do  that?  Why  not  hit  the  fly  where  it  is,  on  the  end  of  your 
nose?"  He  said,  laughing,  that  everything  that  touched  the  end  of  his  nose  he 
felt  on  his  forehead.  A  year  later  again  I  saw  him  and  asked  him  about  the  fly 
experience.  "That's  all  right,  now,", he  said,  "I  learned  in  about  six  months 
that  any  sensation  like  that  meant  the  end  of  the  nose  and  not  the  forehead." 
A  case  of  re-education. 

Necessarily,  from  that  time  to  1865,  I  lost  touch  with  the  New  York  Hos- 
pital until  my  resignation  from  the  army  and  entrance  into  practice  in  my  native 
city,  New  York.  I  was  soon  appointed  surgeon  to  St.  Luke's  Hospital  and  after- 
wards was  made  one  of  the  four  original  attending  surgeons  of  the  new  and 
well-equipped  Roosevelt  Hospital — my  colleagues  there  being  Drs.  Markoe, 
Sands  and  Mason.  In  1867,  on  the  resignation  of  Dr.  Willard  Parker,  my 
name  was  placed  in  nomination  before  the  Board  of  Governors  of  the  New 
York  Hospital.  Dr.  Krackowizer,  a  German  surgeon,  connected  with  the 
German  Hospital,  had  also  been  nominated.  Finding  that  the  majority  of  the 
Surgical  Board  of  the  New  York  Hospital  advocated  Dr.  Krackowizer's 
appointment,  and  feeling  that  this  candidate  was  my  superior  in  experience 
and  ability,  I  withdrew  my  name  and  he  received  the  appointment.  Dr. 
Buck  censured  me  for  my  withdrawal  as  he  felt  assured  of  my  success,  and 
my  good  friend,  Mr.  D.  Colden  Murray,  Secretary  of  the  Board,  told  me 
that  the  Governors,  from  patriotic  feeling,  would  have  bestowed  the  prize  to 
me  had  I  persisted.  He  said  furthermore,  what  was  particularly  pleasing, 
that  he  felt  sure  that  I  would  get  the  next  appointment,  which  I  did,  in  1875, 
by  the  sudden  death  of  the  same  Dr.  Krackowizer,  whose  active  service  in 
the  hospital  lasted  but  three  years,  as  the  old  hospital  in  Broadway  was  sold 
in  1870  and  remained  out  of  operation  until  1876,  when  the  new  hospital 
was  opened  in  West  Fifteenth  Street.  A  small  hospital  for  the  relief  of  acute 
injuries  had,  however,  been  maintained  by  the  New  York  Hospital  Govern- 
ors under  the  title  of  the  Chambers  Street  House  of  Relief.  Established  first 
under  the  charge  of  Dr.  C.  B.  Kelsey,  this  attained  such  importance  to  the 


OF    THE    NEW    YOBK    HOSPITAL 


29 


workers  in  the  lower  portion  of  the  city  as  to  demand  the  best  talent  available, 
and  I  took  pleasure,  in  1875,  in  commending  to  certain  of  the  important 
Governors  the  desirability  of  placing  Dr.  W.  T.  Bull  in  charge.  I  speak 
perhaps  too  strongly  in  saying  that — it  would  be  more  to  the  point  to  say  that 
I  joined  with  others  in  suggesting  Dr.  Bull's  name  for  the  place.  He  got  it, 
and  there  sained  a  reputation  that  spread  over  the  country.  While  develop- 
ing this  efficient  though  small  hospital  and  training  his  internes,  who,  as 
we  all  did,  admired  the  surgeon  and  loved  the  man,  he  met  the  chance  that 
fixed  his  fame.     A  man  shot  in  the  belly  was  brought  in  from  a  street  fight. 


Ftg    5 


DR.   WILLIAM   T.    BULL 


He  was  seen  by  Dr.  Bull  shortly  afterwards  and  it  was  determined  to 
operate.  If  the  bullet  had  perforated  one  or  several  loops  of  the  bowels, 
might  How  our  and  would,  without  fail,  create  a  fatal  inflammation. 
Onl)  twice  before  (by  Kocher,  of  Heme,  Switzerland,  and  In  Kinloch,  of 
Charleston,  S.  C.)  had  any  operation  for  the  relief  of  a  gunshot  perforated 
bowel  been  done,  and  though  in  each  case  a  fatal  result  followed,  the  propriety 
and  possibility  ot  the  operative  procedure  had  been  demonstrated.  Dr.  Bull 
(Fig.  s)  opened  the  abdomen  ot  his  patient  and  found  eleven  perforations  by 
the  bullet  and,  \er\   fortunately,  but  ver\   little  escape  ot  the  faecal  contents. 


30  PERSONAL    REMINISCENCES 

Bull  sewed  up  each  wound,  cleaned  the  soiled  intestines,  closed  the  abdominal 
surgical  incision,  and  the  man  got  well.  It  is  now  a  fairly  common  opera- 
tion and  usually  a  successful  one — without  it  the  injury  is  nearly  always  fatal. 
My  colleagues  at  the  date  of  my  addition  to  the  staff  of  surgeons  were 
Drs.  Buck,  Markoe,  previously  alluded  to,  George  A.  Peters,  H.  B.  Sands  and 
C.  M.  Allin.  Of  them  the  most  eminent,  and  justly  so,  was  Dr.  Sands, 
then,  or  a  little  later,  the  co-professor  of  surgery  with  Dr.  Markoe  in  the 
College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons.  He  was  also  a  partner  of  Dr.  Willard 
Parker  in  private  practice.     He  was  gifted  with  a  remarkably  correct  judg- 

Fig.  G 


DR.    HENRY    B.    SANDS 

ment  and  was  a  very  expert  operator  and  possessed  the  qualities  that  Lawson 
Tait,  a  master  of  English  surgery,  told  me  marked  a  superior  surgeon — 
"Knowing  when  not  to  operate,  and  in  operating,  when  to  stop."  He  was 
an  excellent  teacher — clear  and  definite  in  the  points  he  wished  to  present — 
and  it  was  expected  of  him  that  he  should  become,  as  he  did  in  his  time,  the 
leading  surgeon  of  this  city.  I  have  already  spoken  of  Drs.  Buck  and  Markoe. 
Of  the  others  not  yet  spoken  of,  one  can  only  say  that  they  were  and  were 
not! 


OF    THE    NEW    YORK    HOSPITAL  31 

The  hour  was  ripe  for  a  great  development  of  surgical  activity — the 
advent  and  perfection  of  the  antiseptic  treatment  led  rapidly  to  daring  bold- 
ness of  work  with  such  phenomenal  success  as  to  astonish  everyone.  The 
scalpel  and  the  saw  invaded  parts  of  the  body  hitherto  forbidden  them.  The 
skull  was  opened  and  tumors  removed  from  the  brain,  and  that  mysterious 
organ  upheaved  sufficiently  to  permit  the  nerves  going  from  its  base  to  be 
severed  (an  operation  due  to  Dr.  Hartley,  later  one  of  the  hospital  surgeons). 
The  spine  was  also  exposed  and  its  growths  taken  away  and  the  paralysis 
relieved.  The  chest  cavity,  with  the  lungs  and  heart  in  full  view,  was  safely 
opened  and  treated  surgically  for  abscesses  or  wounds.  The  abdomen  was 
everywhere  invaded — kidneys  opened — its  stones  removed.  The  spleen  and 
parts  of  the  liver  were  taken  away  when  necessary.  The  great  abdominal 
blood-vessels  were  tied  when  required  w7ith  but  little  risk.  Joints  were  freely 
opened,  foreign  bodies  and  growths  removed  without  subsequent  impairment 
of  function.  These  and  many  other  important  acts  arose  from  Listerism. 
Add  to  this  the  revelations  of  the  X-rays  which  permitted  one  to  see  how  the 
heart,  lungs  and  intestines  acted  and  how  the  intestines  continuously  moved, 
and  foreign  bodies  in  the  soft  or  bony  parts  of  the  human  frame  to  be  easily 
recognized  and  extracted.  The  zeal  of  our  whole  staff  was  stimulated  in  an 
extraordinary  manner  which  continued  throughout  the  whole  period  of  my 
service  at  the  hospital.  During  this  time  changes  were  made  in  the  surgical 
staff  by  the  death  or  resignation  of  Drs.  Buck,  1877,  Peters,  1884,  and  Allin 
and  Sands,  resigned  1882,  who  were  succeeded  by  Dr.  Bull  in  1883,  by  L.  A. 
Stimson  in  1888,  by  Frank  Hartley  in  1892  and  Dr.  F.  A.  Murray  in  1893. 
I  was  greatly  pleased  to  have  Dr.  Hartley  (Fig.  7)  on  the  New  York  Hospital 
staff.  He  had,  as  my  house  surgeon  at  Bellevue  Hospital,  when  I  was  attend- 
ing -urgeon  there,  early  attracted  my  attention  by  his  ability.  He  afterwards 
was  assistant  and  successor  in  the  college  to  Dr.  McBurney  as  instructor 
in  operative  surgery.  In  this  work,  he  as  well  as  McBurney  acquired  the 
ease  and  certainty  of  surgical  technic  that  was  so  markedly  shown  in  their 
operations.  He  later  became  Dr.  McBurney's  assistant  (and  many  said  his 
SUggestor)  at  the  Roosevelt  Hospital  and  when  he  resigned  his  position 
there  he  accepted  service  in  the  New  York  Hospital.  He  was  a  quiet  man, 
bur  the  thoroughness  of  his  work,  with  his  quickness  of  mental  action  and  his 
good  judgment,  made  him,  as  I  think,  the  best  surgeon  on  our  staff  or  in  the 
lb-  served  twent)  years  with  us,  when  he  retired  on  account  of  ill  health, 
anil  d:<-d  in  [913.  With  Dr.  Sands'  resignation  and  Dr.  Bull's  appointment 
t  hit  of  hospital  history  involving  the  New  York  Hospital  and  the 
Roost  ell  Hospital  which  is  worth  narrating.  There  had  been  felt  for  a 
number  of  years  that  the  plan  ot  having  six  surgeons  on  duty  with  four 
months'  service  in  each  ot  the  two  divisions  was  not  working  satisfactorily 
and    that    the    time  allotted    to   each    surgeon    was   too   short    to   earn    out 


32  PERSONAL    REMINISCENCES 

thoroughly  any  special  plan  or  variation  of  treatment,  and  that  the  records 
were  frequently  imperfect  or  worthless  for  surgical  deductions.  These  and 
other  points  led  the  staff  to  hope  that  the  Governors  would  permit  a  reduc- 
tion in  the  number  of  the  medical  officers.  The  announced  intention  of  Dr. 
Markoe's  resignation,  with  the  intimation  that  the  Governors  would  listen 
to  our  wishes,  induced  Dr.  Sands  to  make  the  proposal  to  me,  as  each  of  us  held 
positions  in  both  the  New  York  and  Roosevelt  Hospitals,  to  resign  my  posi- 
tion as  surgeon  at  the  Roosevelt  and  that  he  would  in  turn  resign  from  the 

Fig.  7 


DR.    FRANK    HARTLEY 

New  York  Hospital,  the  college,  which  was  located  opposite  the  Roosevelt 
Hospital,  preferring  him  to  hold  a  hospital  service  there  as  nearest  for  the 
convenience  of  the  medical  students.  So  each  of  us  in  1883  did  as  agreed, 
but  the  unexpected  happened,  as  it  usually  does.  The  influence  and  the  claims 
of  Dr.  Bull's  good  work  at  the  Chambers  Street  Hospital  overcame  the 
support  of  our  friends  in  the  Board  of  Governors  and  he  was  appointed 
to  fill  the  vacancy  caused  by  Dr.  Sands'  resignation.  I  was  comforted  a  little 
in  acquiring  such  a  reliable  colleague,   for  he  was  assigned  to  my  division. 


OF    THE    NEW    YORK    HOSPITAL  33 

Before  passing  on  to  further  details  in  my  hospital  experience,  I  would  say 
that  this  idea  of  a  prolonged  hospital  ward  service  under  the  charge  of  one, 
or  at  the  most,  two  medical  or  surgical  officers,  has  gradually  grown  in 
weight  owing  to  the  example  of  the  Roosevelt  Hospital,  which  from  1882 
had  had  its  surgical  ward  under  the  sole  charge  of  Dr.  Sands,  who,  on  his 
sudden  death  in  his  carriage  in  1888  from  cardiac  trouble,  was  followed 
similarly  by  Dr.  McBurney  from  1888  to  1900,  and  since  then  the  direction 
of  that  hospital  in  its  surgical  work  has  been  continued  in  two  divisions,  each 
with  its  surgeon  and  his  assistants.  Furthermore,  at  this  writing,  191 7,  the 
New  ^  ork  Hospital  surgical  staff  consists  now  of  but  two  surgeons — one  to 
each  surgical  division.  The  other  major  hospitals  in  the  city  have  followed  this 
satisfactory  procedure,  and  each  surgeon  is  liberally  supplied  with  experienced 
assistants.  This  is  not  only  a  wise,  but  the  best  way  to  accomplish  the  ends 
of  a  hospital,  viz.:  to  take  good  care  of  the  sick  and  injured  and  to  be  centers 
of  medical  education. 

I  have  but  little  to  add  to  this  long  and  possibly  tedious  account  of  the 
old  hospital.  I  continued  in  its  service  until  the  year  1900.  Up  to  about 
1890,  with  the  many  improvements  on  the  original  antiseptic  treatment  of 
Lister,  most  of  these  tending  towards  greater  simplicity  in  its  detail,  converting 
it  into  aseptic  surgery — that  is  to  say,  we  now  kept  germs  out  of  wounds 
instead  of  killing  germs  supposed  to  be  in  wounds — surgery  advanced  with 
great  rapidity,  though  sometimes  irregularly.  It  was  not  an  easy  matter  to 
conduct  an  operation  under  these  new  principles  of  Lister,  which  demanded 
the  use  of  chemical  materials,  such  as  solutions  of  carbolic  acid  and,  later, 
corrosive  sublimate,  salicylic  acid  and  many  other  recognized  germicides. 
To  do  it  thoroughly  required  instruments  to  be  immersed  for  a  given  time  in 
such  solutions  as  might  not  injure  them,  and  that  the  hands  of  the  surgeon, 
of  his  assistants  and  others  should  also  be  similarly  disinfected.  Sponges  were 
discarded  and  pads  of  loose  gauze,  to  be  only  once  employed  and  then  thrown 
away,  came  into  use.  Ligatures  made  of  catgut  duly  sterilized  were  em- 
ployed, as  they  could  be  left  cut  short  and  undisturbed  about  a  vessel  or  in 
the  edges  of  a  wound  if  used  as  sutures.  With  the  gauze  pads  came  a  new 
feature  in  our  operative  technique.  Necessity  required  that  these  should  be 
dry  to  preserve  their  absorbent  power  on  the  obscuring  or  escaping  blood. 
It  was  soon  found  that  nearly  every  noxious  germ  was  killed  by  a  tem- 
perature above  iysJ.  So  in  came  the  principle  of  dry  or  moist  heat  in  our 
work.  Pads,  bandages,  dressings,  instruments,  towels,  sheets,  all  were  ren- 
dered sterile  1>V  heat,  and  for  the  nurses'  and  surgeons'  hands  and  the  oper- 
ative   area    came    various    disinfections    from    carbolic    acid    to    chlorine    and 

iodine,  and,  finally,  rubber  gloves  or  coverings  were  resorted  to  with  or  with- 
out previous  moist  disinfection.  To  carrj  this  all  out  required  careful  train- 
ing ;hi'I  long  practice.     For  considerable  time  I  had  in  my  operations  at  the 


34  PERSONAL    REMINISCENCES 

New  York  Hospital  one  of  the  interne's  work  as  an  overseer  to  look  out  for 
errors  in  the  antiseptic  management.  He  was  to  call  out  loudly  when  an 
error  occurred,  and  either  he  or  I  rectified  the  error,  which  was  usually  the 
incautious  touching  of  some  non-sterilized  thing  or  to  pick  up  something  that 
had  fallen  to  the  floor.  Once  when  I  was  operating  on  a  brain  tumor  case, 
with  a  large  attendance  of  students  and  noted  surgeons,  for  this  was  among 
the  first  of  such  operations  done  in  this  country,  I  was  horrified  to  hear  the 
watcher's  voice  sing  out,  "Error,  Dr.  Weir!"  I  stopped  and  learned  that  as 
the  day  was  dark,  the  electric  light  reflector  above  my  head  was  unpleasantly 
warm  and  I  had  reached  up  my  hand  and  pushed  it  up  higher.  The  audience 
laughed  at  me,  but  it  served  as  a  text  to  show  them  need  of  constant  care, 
and  also  to  reiterate,  as  Dr.  Hunt,  of  Philadelphia,  had  said,  that  antiseptic 
surgery  was  not  cocksure  surgery.  That  was  twenty  years  ago,  but  even 
now  at  this  writing,  when  improvements  and  simple  procedure  in  operative 
work  have  steadily  advanced,  no  surgeon  that  I  know  of  can  yet  show  statis- 
tically a  record  of  a  large  number  of  wounds  made  by  him  germ-free  through- 
out their  course.  Mishaps  from  2  to  3  per  cent  are  to  be  expected,  but 
they  are  generally  of  a  trifling  character,  but  the  "nigger  is  there  in  the 
fence."  In  most  of  these  cases  the  infecting  germs  develop  from  the  skin 
adjacent  to  the  primary  wound  or  result  from  a  perforation  of  the  protecting 
rubber  glove. 

I  had,  when  Dr.  Percy  R.  Bolton  was  my  House  Surgeon  in  1891,  who 
afterward  became,  in  1900,  one  of  the  surgeons  of  the  New  York  Hospital, 
a  good  many  infections  following  my  operations,  in  spite  of  my  own  and 
his  care  (for  he  showed  then  the  qualifications  that  subsequently  became 
prominent  in  his  later  work  and  marked  him  as  a  surgeon  of  great  ability). 
We  did  improve  in  our  results,  but  something  was  wrong  and  it  was  not  dis- 
closed until  he  made  the  proposition  to  me  to  let  him  be  the  only  person 
to  hand  me  the  various  things  required  at  an  operation.  Consenting,  he 
arranged  that  everything,  duly  sterilized,  was  placed  on  small  tables  near 
him,  so  he  could  reach  for  them  himself,  hand  me  the  desired  instruments — 
knife,  retractor  or  what-not,  ligatures,  sutures,  pad  or  bandages.  In  short, 
nothing  touched  me  but  the  things  he  passed  me.  Soiled  things  went  on 
or  into  a  special  receptacle.  All  this  made  the  work,  which  continued  a 
month,  a  little  slower,  but  the  outcome  was  so  satisfactory  and  so  sur- 
prising to  the  staff  and  most  instructive  to  us  all  and  particularly  to  the 
operating  room  nurses,  that  a  new  spirit  of  carefulness  and  thorough- 
ness was  infused  into  us  all.  Certainly  in  my  long  and  active  profes- 
sional life  I  never  had  a  more  satisfactory  period  of  labor  than  that  of 
the  twelve  years  of  my  hospital  work,  from  1888  to  1900.  I  should  like 
to  live  it  over  again,  for  with  the  many  scientific  facts  that  were  brought  to 
light  there  was  attained  a  precision  of  action  and  a  wealth  of  results.     These 


OF    THE    NEW    YORK    HOSPITAL  35 

gave  surgeons  everywhere  intense  satisfaction  and  pleasure  for  the  work's 
self.  My  own  labors  were  accomplished  with  the  assistance  of  the  best  staff 
of  internes  I  ever  had,  and  my  experience  in  that  grade  of  assistants  has  been 
large,  for  I  have  held  service  besides  in  the  Roosevelt,  St.  Luke's,  Bellevue 
and  other  similar  institutions  in  this  city — I  intentionally  emphasize  my  com- 
mendation of  their  work.  They  were  enthusiastic — I  was  also;  they  ques- 
tioned me  on  every  occasion  and  I  questioned  them,  gathering  their  opinions 
on  this  or  that.  I  told  them  often  and  truthfully  that  I  gained  as  much  from 
them  as  they  got  from  me.  They  were  eager  to  hunt  up  and  settle  disputed 
points  and  worked  like  Trojans.  Their  worth  has  not  been  exaggerated  by 
me — the  proof  is  their  subsequent  success  in  life,  for  out  of  the  twenty-six 
house  surgeons  who  were  with  me  from  1888  to  1900,  ten  have  achieved 
appointments  as  surgeons  in  the  various  hospitals  of  this  great  city.  Three 
of  them  are  surgeons  or  assistant  surgeons  in  the  New  York  Hospital.  Do 
you  wonder  that  I  was  proud  of  them  all?  With  such  assistants  and  with 
such  zeal  as  we  all  felt  it  will  readily  be  comprehended  that  the  teaching  at 
our  clinics,  and  by  the  demonstrations  of  the  benefits  of  antiseptic  and  aseptic 
surgery  and  of  the  many  new  and  perfected  operations  with  the  regular 
exhibition  of  the  after  results  of  the  surgical  treatment,  should  attract  stu- 
dents to  our  amphitheatres  and  wards. 

My  clinic  day  was  Saturday — Dr.  Bull,  who  was  on  duty  with  me, 
choosing  Thursday  for  his  clinic  day.  The  other  surgeons  mutually  ar- 
ranged their  own  clinic  days.  It  was  not  until  about  1886  that  my  endeav- 
ors were  followed  by  much  of  an  attendance,  but  perhaps  owing  to  the 
circumstances  of  my  being  then  appointed  Professor  of  Clinical  Surgery  at  the 
College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons  and  making  clinical  teaching  more 
thorough,  I  succeeded  in  attracting  the  medical  students  to  come  the  long 
distance  from  59th  Street  to  15th  Street.  But  come  they  did,  and  soon, 
by  care  in  grouping  my  operative  cases  when  possible,  and  of  carefully 
showing  their  progress  from  week  to  week,  conjoined  with  short,  clearly- 
put  explanations  of  the  pathological  and  physiological  changes  which  pre- 
sented themselves  before  and  after  an  operation,  I  secured  at  length  a 
larL'c  and  constant  attendance,  not  only  of  students,  at  whose  minds  I  aimed, 
but  also  of  noted  surgeons  from  all  parts  of  the  country  to  see  what  Drs. 
Weir  and  Hull  were  doing,  just  as  I  did  when  I  was  traveling,  when  I  went, 
tor  instance,  to  Mayo's  and  Murphy's  clinics  in  Rochester  and  Chicago.  This 
clinical  teaching,  while  fascinating  to  the  witnesses  present,  is  not  always  the 
best  for  tin-  Students.  It  docs  not  occupy  fully  their  time,  for  while  the 
operation  is  in  progress,  often  there  is  little  to  be  seen,  or  the  surgeon  is 
busy  and  Jays  bul  little  (the  less,  the  better,  as  later  we  found  that  one 
.ant    talk     without    ejecting     little    spats    of    spittle     which     often     infected    a 

wound,  and  the  surgeon  therefore  nowadays  covers  his  mouth  with  a  cur- 


36  PERSONAL    REMINISCENCES 

tain  of  gauze  and  by  gestures  or  prearranged  signals  obtains  from  the  assistants 
or  nurses  what  he  wants),  or  his  assistants  often  get  in  the  way.  Hence, 
newer  and  better  methods  began  about  1898  to  come  into  vogue,  whereby  the 
students  in  small  groups  attended  the  surgeons  in  their  rounds  in  their 
wards  and  in  the  operating  rooms,  and  in  turn  they  witnessed  and  performed 
similar  operations  on  living  animals  (for  each  college  since  that  time  has 
had  an  animal  clinic  for  this  as  well  as  for  beneficent  purposes).  In  conse- 
quence the  large  general  surgical  clinics  have  much  waned  in  importance. 

Of  these  large  clinics  which  I  have  been  portraying,  there  were  several 
others  in  the  city,  the  chief  of  which  was  that  held  at  Bellevue  every  Sat- 
urday. This  clinic  was  conducted  by  the  same  Dr.  Wood  (little  Jimmy 
Wood)  who  first  introduced  me  to  surgery  (see  page  1).  He  was  a  showy 
surgeon — very  dexterous  and  very  quick  in  his  surgical  work.  He  loved  the 
limelights.  If  he  could  do  an  operation  rapidly  he  enjoyed  the  applause  that 
followed.  In  the  early  days  of  my  pupilage  he  used  to  fill  the  big  amphi- 
theatre at  Bellevue,  holding  nearly  a  thousand  students,  and  do  a  number 
of  operations  while  the  first  row  of  students  and  the  unemployed  assistants 
held  their  watches  open  in  hand.  Once  I  was  present  when  he  invited  a 
distinguished  English  surgeon  to  operate  before  the  class  and  to  do  an  ampu- 
tation of  the  thigh  for  a  tubercular  knee  joint.  The  surgeon  guest  made  a 
few  concise  remarks  and  did  his  work  carefully,  tying  the  vessels,  and  ended 
by  closing  the  stump  with  suture  and  applying  the  necessary  bandage,  all  this 
occupying  over  half  an  hour.  Then  a  similar  case  was  brought  for  Dr.  Wood 
to  perform  a  similar  operation.  Flash !  Flash !  went  the  amputating  knife. 
"Saw,"  said  the  surgeon,  and  rasp,  rasp,  the  leg  was  off,  two  or  three  big 
vessels  tied,  a  towel  put  over  the  stump  and  the  patient  rolled  out;  time,  three 
and  one-half  minutes!  Dr.  Wood  beamed.  The  next  week  I  asked  one 
of  the  house  surgeons  how  the  patients  got  along.  He  said,  the  English- 
man's is  doing  nicely — Dr.  Wood's  died  the  same  night  from  hemorrhage! 
While  he  was  a  man  of  large  surgical  experience,  he  was  an  illiterate  one. 
He  told  the  class  once  that  in  private  practice  they  must  be  careful  in  their 
behavior,  for,  he  continued,  you  must  always  remember  that  the  eyes  of  the 
vox  populi  are  upon  you.  He  also  remarked  at  another  clinic  that  whenever 
the  prefix  peri  was  used  it  meant  inflammation,  as,  for  instance,  he  continued, 
pericarditis  meant  inflammation  of  the  heart,  as  peritonitis  meant  inflamma- 
tion of  the  bowels!  With  all  his  oddities,  he  was  much  liked  by  his  fellows 
and  his  followers.  He  never  did  a  mean  thing  or  said  a  nasty  word  of 
anyone. 

McBurney  held  another  weekly  clinic  at  the  Roosevelt  Hospital,  more 
attractive  to  graduates  than  to  students,  but  well  attended.  I  was  surprised 
one  day,  on  going  into  my  bank  to  get  a  check  cashed,  to  hear  the  teller  say: 
"Dr.  Weir,  that  was  an  interesting  clinic  you  gave  us  last  Saturday."    "What 


OF    THE    NEW    YORK    HOSPITAL  37 

do  you  know  about  that,  young  man?"  I  said.  "Why,  several  of  us  clerks 
go  regularly  every  Saturday  to  your  or  Dr.  Wood's  clinic  at  Bellevue."  I 
left  surprised,  but  arranged  that  only  those  showing  their  student  cards  and 
physicians  would  thereafter  be  allowed  to  enter  the  operating  theatre.  The 
rapid  increase  in  the  size  and  business  of  the  great  metropolis  naturally  aug- 
mented also  the  sickness  and  injuries  of  its  population,  and  thanks  to  the 
management  of  the  City  Fathers  and  to  private  donations,  hospitals  had 
increased  largely  in  number  and  in  size.  In  191 5  there  were  in  New  York 
City  proper  eighty-four  hospitals  and  infirmaries,  of  which  twenty  were  gen- 
eral hospitals  of  large  size  and  had  over  one  hundred  beds  each.  Dispen- 
saries of  various  kinds  and  often  for  special  diseases  were  started,  and  made 
the  city  a  medical  as  well  as  a  financial  center,  and  new  medical  colleges 
were  opened,  enlarged  or  improved.  The  great  change  in  this  last  respect 
was  the  crystallization  of  the  idea  that  students  should  early  and  frequently 
be  brought  into  close  and  continued  observation  of  the  patients  shown  them 
either  in  hospital  wards  or  in  dispensary  clinics.  To  meet  this  want,  exten- 
sive outdoor  departments  were  established  and  connected  with  many  of  the 
large  hospitals  and  colleges,  and  thus  offered  opportunities  for  medical  in- 
struction as  well  as  medical  care.  As  previously  stated,  the  function  of  a 
modern  hospital  is  not  only  to  care  for  the  sick  and  injured,  but  also  to  show 
others,  students  and  nurses,  how  this  is  to  be  done.  It  has  become  generally 
felt  that  the  hospital  and  college  should  have  more  intimate  connections  one 
with  the  other.  Where  means  sufficient  exist  they  should  be  under  one 
directory  board,  but  as  this  millennial  picture  can  only  be  seldom  realized, 
the  endeavor  should  be  to  make  the  two  hearts  beat  as  one  as  far  as  pos- 
sible. As  in  the  college  are  gathered  the  best  exponents  of  medical  thought 
and  experience,  it  is  felt  that  the  hospital  and  college  should  jointly  appoint 
the  medical  officers  of  the  Hospital  and  the  Out-Patient  Departments.  With 
hospital  appointments  made  in  this  manner,  salaries  for  special  work  or 
analysis  might  be  required,  for  which  the  college  should  pro  rata  contribute. 
These  imperfect  ideas  have  been  growing  stronger  each  decade,  and  our 
medical  colleges  strive  either  to  own  a  hospital,  which  they  rarely  accom- 
plish, or  they  attempted  affiliations  of  a  less  strength  with  existing  hospitals. 
In  this  endeavor,  the  Bellevue  Medical  College,  with  its  neighbor,  the 
I  niversity  Medical  College,  formerly  in  East  Fourteenth  Street,  managed  to 
secure  flu-  majority  oi  the  Bellevue  Hospital  and  Dispensary  appointments. 
The  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons,  now  moved  to  West  Fifty-ninth 
Street,  opposite  to  the  Roosevelt   Hospital,  effected  a  temporary  alliance  with 

that    hospital,    this    union    being    later   more   decidedly   effected    with    the    Pres- 

byterian  Hospital.  Finally,  the  Cornell  University,  which  had  recently  estab- 
lished its  medical  college  in  this  city,  made  efforts  for  a  similar  conjunc- 
tion, and  some  thought  these  mighl  be  directed  toward  the  New  York   I  Ins- 


38  PERSONAL    REMINISCENCES 

pital — a  suggestion  that  seemed  to  be  corroborated  by  the  appointment  of 
Dr.  L.  A.  Stimson  in  1888,  of  the  staff  of  that  college,  to  be  an  Attending 
Surgeon  at  the  New  York  Hospital.  Dr.  Stimson  was  also  appointed  at  the 
same  time  as  the  Surgeon  of  the  House  of  Relief. 

This  digression  has  been  purposely  made,  as  it  bears  on  my  final  service 
at  the  New  York  Hospital.  Early  in  the  year  1900,  without  a  word  of 
conference  or  intimation,  I  was  notified  by  the  hospital  superintendent  that 
the  executive  committee  of  the  hospital,  a  small  committee  of  five  gov- 
ernors who  met  weekly  partially  to  relieve  the  general  board  of  its  larger 
work,  had  directed  that  the  Saturday  clinic  should  hereafter  be  divided  and 
every  other  week  be  conducted  by  Dr.  Stimson.  I  moreover  found  that  on 
the  first  coming  Saturday,  when  I  attempted  to  exhibit  cases  (not  to  oper- 
ate) at  an  hour  not  occupied  for  clinic  purposes,  I  was  further  informed  by 
the  chairman  of  this  committee  himself  that  no  teaching  or  operation  could 
be  done  by  me  publicly  on  the  day  that  Dr.  Stimson  held  his  clinic,  and 
vice  versa.  This  naturally  broke  up  my  clinic,  since  to  show  cases  only 
every  two  weeks  after  the  operation  had  been  witnessed  destroyed  the  proper 
continuity  of  teaching. 

I  did  not  think  of  aught  but  the  injustice  of  both  the  deed  and  its  man- 
ner. I  regret  now  that  I  had  not  gone  to  the  governors  at  their  next  full 
meeting  and  put  the  position  as  I  saw  it  before  them.  I  therefore  submitted 
to  the  injunction,  but  naturally  was  restive  under  it.  The  reasons  for  this 
action  were  evident  to  those  acquainted  with  the  medical  politics  of  that  day> 
which  need  not  now  be  amplified.  Had  a  request  been  made  to  me  by  any 
of  the  other  surgeons  to  share  the  Saturday  clinic  with  them,  I  would  have 
gladly  tried  to  meet  their  wishes.  It  would  not  have  been  difficult  to  arrange 
a  workable  plan.  Relief,  however,  came  unexpectedly  and  satisfactorily  to 
me.  Dr.  McBurney,  whose  name  is  so  indissolubly  joined  to  the  successful 
surgical  treatment  of  appendicitis,  had  suddenly  resigned  his  position  at  the 
Roosevelt  Hospital,  and  Dr.  Bull  and  myself,  each  of  us  being  a  co-professor 
of  surgery  in  the  college  opposite  the  hospital,  were  asked  to  further  the 
teaching  of  the  students,  who  lost  much  time  in  going  to  and  from  the  New 
York  Hospital,  by  taking  charge  of  the  surgical  service  of  the  Roosevelt 
Hospital.  This  was  particularly  pleasing  to  Dr.  Bull  and  myself,  for  by 
this  arrangement  we  each  would  have  continuous  service,  a  condition  aimed 
at  and  lost  at  the  New  York  Hospital,  and  also  an  assistant  to  help  in  the 
ward  service  and  to  take  charge  of  our  wards  in  our  vacation  periods.  This 
offer  was  accepted  by  both  of  us,  and  resulted  in  our  sending  in  our  resigna- 
tions to  the  New  York  Hospital  Board,  which  were  duly  accepted,  and 
entering  upon  our  new  duties  at  the  Roosevelt  Hospital  in  the  spring  of  1900. 


See  Appendix  B. 


OF    THE    NEW    YORK    HOSPITAL  39 

At  the  next  meeting  of  the  New  York  Hospital  Governors  I  was  made 
a  Consulting  Surgeon,  a  position  that  I  yet  hold. 

This  was  also  a  remarkable  year  to  me,  for  in  it  I  received  the  highest 
compliment  in  my  career.  I  was  made,  with  three  other  American  surgeons 
— Dr.  Keen,  of  Philadelphia,  Dr.  Halstead,  of  Baltimore,  and  Dr.  Warren, 
of  Boston — an  Honorary  Fellow  of  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons  of  Eng- 
land. This  was  the  first  time  such  authority  had  been  given  to  this  ven- 
erable and  venerated  society.  To  celebrate  its  one  hundredth  anniversary, 
Parliament  had  recently  granted  them  the  privilege,  which  before  did  not 
exist,  of  bestowing  fifty  Honorary  Fellowships.  Three  or  four  were  selected 
from  each  prominent  nation,  and  the  honors  were  personally  given  in  Lon- 
don, 1900,  with  great  pomp  and  ceremony.  The  Prince  of  Wales  and  the 
Prime  Minister  Salisbury  were  likewise  similarly  decorated. 

Though  not  a  reminiscence  of  the  New  York  Hospital,  I  may  add  that 
I  continued  at  work  until  1906  at  the  Roosevelt  Hospital,  when  I  resigned 
that  position.     This  act,  with  the  resignation  of  my  professorship  in  the  Col- 
lege in   1903,  was  the  finish  of  my  professional  career.     The  students  then 
presented  me  with  a  silver  loving  cup  appropriately  inscribed,  together  with 
an  address  that  touched  me  deeply.*     In  1907  I  retired  from  general  practice 
and    devoted   several   years   to    the   pleasure   of   travel,   in   which   in  previous 
summers    I    could   only    indulge    in   my   vacation    periods.      In    1895    I    mar- 
ried   Mrs.    Mary    B.   Alden,   who  was   as   earnest   a  traveler   as  myself,   and 
now  free  from   all  cares,   we  journeyed   widely.     We  visited  what  was  best 
in   all   the   various  continents  save   South  America.      Our   longest   trips  were 
twice   around    the   world,   which    included   side   expeditions   to   Burma,    Siam, 
Java  and   the   Philippines.     Travel  being  finally  cut  off  by  waning  strength, 
I   turned   to  horticulture  for  comfort  and  occupation  at  Lake  George,   New 
York,  in  the  summer,  and  at  Nassau,  Bahamas,  with  its  delightful  climate, 
in   the   winter.     I   take   great  pleasure   in   the  cultivation   of  my  flowers   and 
rejoice  when  they  excel  those  of  my  neighbors  and  mourn  when  they  do  not, 
nor   yet   having   killed    all    of    the   old   Adam    that   exists    in    most   of    us.      In 
1910   1   was  complimented   h\    m\    former  hospital  colleagues  and  house  sur- 
geons,    'ait   run-    hundred    in    number,    bj    a   public   dinner   at    the    University 
Club,   when   Or.  Abbe,  presiding,  bestowed  on  me  an  elegant  silver  cup  with 
a   loving   inscription   engraved   on    it.** 

My  only  connection  now  with  m\  hospital  lite  is  the  holding  of  the 
complimentarj  office  oi  Consulting  Surgeon,  not  only  to  the  New  York  Hos- 
pital,  hut   also   to   the   Roosevelt   and    St.   Vincent's    Hospitals,   having   resigned 

similar  positions  at  St.  Luke's  and  the  Ruptured  and  Crippled  and  the  General 

.  E. 

1  ■  i;  1  II. 


40  PERSONAL    REMINISCENCES 

Memorial  Hospitals,  also  at  the  New  York  Eye  and  Ear  Infirmary  and 
several  other  lesser  institutions.  And  as  still  an  officer  of  the  Medical  Re- 
serve Corps  since  the  Spanish  War,  I  hope  yet  to  be,  in  case  of  need,  of 
some  service  to  my  country  in  any  of  her  trials. 

The  very  pleasing  task  given  me  by  Mr.  Howard  Townsend,  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  New  York  Hospital,  is  done.  He  generously  allowed  me  a  large 
liberty  in  space  and  expression  in  its  completion.  This  I  have  perhaps  too 
extensively  availed  myself  of,  and  also  with  the  garrulity  of  age  (now  nearly 
eighty)  have  occupied  too  much  time  and  space  that  must  seem  to  others  to 
be  ill  spent.  But  I  can  end  fitly  with  the  quotation  from  one  of  our  child- 
hood's poems: 

"  View  me  not  with  a  critic's  eye. 
But  pass  my  imperfections  by." 


CIVIL  WAR  RECOLLECTIONS* 

By  Robert  F.  Weir, 
Assistant  Surgeon,  U.  S.  A.,  1861-1865 

On  page  7  of  my  Reminiscences  of  the  New  York  Hospital  I  described 
how  when  the  Civil  War  broke  out  in  1 861  I  hastily  and  unexpectedly  obtained 
a  uniform,  and  a  few  days  after  the  firing  on  Fort  Sumter  in  April  of  that 
year,  I  had  joined  the  12th  N.  Y.  State  Militia  as  an  assistant  surgeon,  and 
with  that  regiment  went  to  the  war. 

I  marched  down  Broadway  with  Guthrie's  "Commentaries  on  Military 
Surgery"  under  my  coat  and  my  pockets  filled  with  emergency  medicines  and 
bandages.  It  was  Sunday,  just  as  the  church  services  were  over;  the  streets 
were  jammed,  with  the  crowds  showing  greater  and  more  intense  enthusiasm 
than  is  being  manifested  in  our  present  war  with  Germany.  Besides  my  own 
regiment  were  three  others  going  to  Washington  via  Annapolis,  as  the 
Seventh  Regiment,  which  preceded  us,  was  then  fighting  its  way  through 
Baltimore,  so  we  were  to  get  to  Washington  by  a  different  route.  From 

the  great  crowd  we  all  had  greetings  and  good  wishes  from  friends,  and  I 
w;is  most  impressed  as  we  passed  Grace  Church  to  see  Miss  Beekman,  daugh- 
ter of  one  of  the  Hospital  Governors,  and  whom  I  knew  but  slightly,  rush 
through  the  ranks  to  me  and  with  tears  rolling  down  her  cheeks  bid  me  a  hearty 
"Godspeed."  The  next  day  saw  us  at  Annapolis  and  started  for  a  cross- 
country march  to  Washington.  A  very  hard  trip  it  was  for  green  infantry, 
and  especially  tor  the  privates  with  their  heavy  knapsacks.  We  officers  had 
scant  fare,  and  only  a  few  of  us  picked  up  a  dinner  at  a  farmhouse  of  ham 
and  eggs,  for  which  the  hostess  charged  us  five  dollars  each.  One  bit  of 
relief  came  in  rhc-n.  One  of  our  dinner  party  of  five  had  carried  from  Ann- 
apolis  a  bottle  of  champagne  which  a  friend  had  given  him,  and  when  on  our 
renewed  march  we  stopped  for  a  few  minutes  he  said,  "Let's  drink  this  up; 
I'm  tired  carrying  it."  So  out  came  our  tin  cups,  but  the  champagne  refused 
to  be  opened;  our  penknives  would  nor  answer,  so  one  of  them  took  m\   brand- 

*The  •■  recollection  and  the  appendix  ;uv  not  properlj  a  pari  of  the  Reminiscences  of 
the  New  York  Ho  pita!  publi  bed  in  1 1n  i r  Bulletin  bui  have  been  permitted  by  the  Presidenl 
of  the  Hospital  to  be  added  to  a  limited  number  of  thai  Bulletin  for  the  purpose  of  a  private 
and  personal  distribution  to  the  family  and  Intimate  friends  of  the  writer,  The  narrowing 
of  this  publication  is  a  permissible  reason  for  the  admission  into  print  of  the  possibly  too 
laudatory  pagi    found  in  1  > j » -  appendix     R.  F.  \V. 


42  CIVIL     WAR    RECOLLECTIONS 

new  gilt  dress  sword,  drew  it  and  neatly  cracked  off  the  neck  of  the  bottle 
and  lost  but  little  of  the  precious  hot  fluid.  My  sword  in  the  next  four  years 
was  only  used  for  an  occasional  formal  salute. 

The  following  day  we  got  to  Washington  and  were  located  in  hastily 
erected  wooden  barracks  just  back  of  Willard's  Hotel,  and  the  regiment  early 
thereafter  put  through  a  course  of  drilling  by  its  very  efficient  Colonel,  Dan 
Butterfield,  who  was  afterward  made  Chief  of  Staff  to  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac  under  General  McClellan.  Shortly  afterward  President  Lincoln 
summoned  to  him  the  officers  of  the  regiment,  as  he  did  of  the  other  volunteer 
regiments  stationed  in  the  city.  We  were  received  in  the  semi-private  room 
on  the  second  floor  of  the  White  House  and  were  ranged  in  two  rows,  the 
officers  of  higher  rank  in  the  front  row  and  those  of  lesser  rank  in  the  rear, 
and  a  space  of  three  feet  between  them.  Mr.  Lincoln  addressed  the  Colonel 
with  a  little  speech  of  a  few  moments'  duration,  the  purport  of  which  I  lost 
nearly  all  because  of  a  ridiculous  incident  which  occurred.  Little  Tad  Lin- 
coln, who  was  about  ten  or  twelve  years  of  age,  had  marched  between  the 
two  rows  of  the  officers  and  stopped  in  front  of  me,  just  behind  the  Colonel, 
who  wore  a  very  broad  and  gaudy  gilt  shoulder-strap  to  hold  up  his  sword 
belt.  The  boy  was  attracted  by  this,  and  in  a  moment  had  wet  his  fingers 
on  his  tongue  and  began  smearing  them  over  the  Colonel's  shoulder-strap. 
I  shook  my  finger  at  him,  whereupon  he  bent  his  head  and  butted  me  in  the 
stomach,  which  doubled  me  up,  and  when  I  rose  I  saw  him  at  the  end  of  the 
row  with  his  thumb  at  his  nose  and  fingers  wriggling.  I  confess  I  rejoiced 
for  a  moment  when  I  heard  in  later  years  that  he  had  caught  smallpox. 

This  was  not  the  only  time  I  saw  Lincoln.  He  came  to  Frederick, 
Maryland,  where  I  was  subsequently  stationed  when  Hooker  was  relieved 
from  his  command  prior  to  its  march  under  Meade  towards  Gettysburg, 
when  I  was  presented  to  him,  a  tall,  ungainly  figure  on  horseback,  and  later 
again,  and  the  most  memorable  of  all,  I  stood  within  twenty  feet  of  him  when, 
after  Gettysburg,  he  delivered  his  memorable  address — so  noble  and  in  such 
fitting  words  that  a  copy  is  now  framed  at  Oxford  as  the  finest  extant 
specimen  of  the  English  language.  Our  regiment  finally  went  into  the 
field,  but  I  had,  by  August,  1861,  left  them  to  become  an  assistant  surgeon 
in  the  United  States  Army.  I  passed  the  Board  and  was  first  assigned  to 
the  Second  U.  S.  Cavalry,  just  up  in  Maryland  from  Texas,  where  it  had 
been  under  the  command  of  Colonel  Robert  E.  Lee,  who  afterwards  seceded 
with  his  State  and  became  the  great  soldier  of  the  Confederacy.  The  com- 
mander of  the  regiment  to  whom  I  was  ordered  to  report  was  Colonel  George 
H.  Thomas,  later  the  celebrated  General  Thomas,  familiarly  known  by  his 
trusted  officers  and  soldiers  as  "Pap  Thomas."  He  and  I  received  our  com- 
missions the  same  day,  his  as  brigadier-general  and  mine  as  assistant  surgeon, 
and  took  together  the  oath  of  allegiance  customary  on  such  occasions. 


AND    APPENDICES  43 


I  learned  two  things  aside  from  my  medical  duties  in  this  my  first  intro- 
duction to  the  regular  army  life  that  proved  serviceable.  The  first  was  the 
art  of  mixing  drinks  and  the  second  was  a  lesson  in  gambling.  This  sounds 
demoralizing.  I  was  told  within  a  day  or  two  of  my  joining  the  regiment 
that  "Pills"  was  always  their  toddy  mixer,  so,  regularly  at  4  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon  one  jorum  of  hot  Scotch  whiskey  was  I  compelled  to  make,  and 
again  after  dinner  sundry  rounds  of  the  same  for  the  various  members  of 
the  mess.  Other  drinks  were  often  called  for,  and  I  was  duly  instructed 
in  their  manufacture.  I  often  slipped  off  to  bed  by  nine  o'clock  if  I  could, 
but  was  not  always  successful.  I  rarely  consumed  more  than  my  one  drink, 
but  in  after  life  I  was  often  complimented  on  the  tastefulness  of  my  spirituous 
combinations.  The  gambling  question  was  strongly  impressed  on  me  in  this 
way.  Remember,  however,  that  I  had  never  earned  up  to  any  more  than  a 
hundred  dollars  and  that  my  parents'  allowance  to  me  had  always  been 
rather  restricted.  So  when  after  three  months'  waiting  the  paymaster  arrived 
and  distributed  to  all  of  us  our  pay  in  gold,  hilarity  ensued.  Soon  the  $20 
gold  pieces  were  being  tossed  up  for  heads  or  tails,  with  double  and  quit  as  a 
caution.  I,  a  green  'un,  was  jeered  into  the  game,  and  in  less  time  than  it 
takes  to  write  of  it  had  lost  $200,  nearly  two  months  pay,  and  was  quite  "sick" 
of  the  fun  and  tried  to  retire,  but  one  of  the  older  officers  engaged  in  the 
game — for  all  were  at  it — said,  "Don't  give  up,  Pills;  it's  sure  to  be  your 
turn,"  and  so  it  was.  Then  good  fortune  came  my  way  and  I  was  glad  to  get 
up  and  leave.  Unused  to  liberal  money,  its  possible  rapid  loss  influenced  me 
for  many  years,  and  I've  been  thankfully  content  since  with  the  joys  of  a  ten- 
cent  poker  game  and  the  like.    The  lesson  I  had  proved  a  good  one. 

Stonewall  Jackson  was  at  this  time  raiding,  often  successfully,  up  and 
down  the  Shenandoah  Valley,  and  my  military  experience  was  inaugurated 
when  I  went  on  duty  with  General  Thomas  and  his  escort  towards  Win- 
chester, Virginia.  The  road  was  supposed  to  be  free  from  the  enemy,  but 
suddenly  a  sound  of  gunfire  was  heard  with  the  noise  of  flying  bullets,  which 
made  me  "duck"  in  spite  of  myself.  Much  mortified,  I  looked  around  and 
found  General  Thomas  ducking  in  the  same  manner.  He  saw  my  action 
and  said,  "Don't  be  ashamed,  Doctor;  though  I've  been  in  many  fights,  I 
can't  help  it  for  two  or  three  times;  then  you  get  used  to  it  and  don't  mind  it. 
And  after  all,"  lie  concluded,  "it  is  so  foolish,  for  when  you  hear  the  'ping' 
the  bullet  has  gone  by  you."  The  attack  ended  as  suddenly  as  it  began. 
General  Banks'  (who  succeeded  the  rather  inefficient  General  Patterson,  who 
commanded  the  Department  of  the  Shenandoah)  headquarters  were  soon 
thereafter  established  tor  the  winter  at  Frederick,  Maryland,  hut  1  had  had  a 
little  further  experience  in  a  skirmish  at  Martinsburg,  Va.,  and  as  a  medical 
relief  oili<er-  to  General  Stone  at  Ball  Bluff,  when  he  had  been  repulsed  in 
his  unsuccessful  attempt  to  cross  the   Potomac  at  that  point.     1 1  is  loss  was 


44  CIVIL    WAR    RECOLLECTIONS 

great  and  the  unsatisfactory  action  of  the  volunteers  in  his  forces,  under  the 
command  of  a  political  colonel,  was  very  marked.  I  arrived  the  morning 
after  the  fight  and  reported  to  the  commanding  officer's  tent  and  turned  over 
my  supplies.  A  few  minutes  later  I  was  requested  to  join  the  General  at 
his  breakfast  with  his  aides.  A  sadder  time  I  never  spent.  Beyond  the  few 
words  that  politeness  demanded,  General  Stone  was  plunged  in  the  deepest 
distress,  which  was  unbroken  by  his  aides.  I  was  glad  when  he  arose  and  thus 
allowed  me  to  make  my  exit.  My  heart  went  out  in  pity  to  him.  He  was 
an  able  officer,  and  his  fellows  said  he  never  recovered  from  this  blow  to  his 
ambitions. 

General  Banks'  medical  director  at  first  assigned  me  to  Battery  F  of 
the  U.  S.  Fourth  Artillery,  commanded  by  Captain  Clement  Best.  The 
command  was  a  small  one,  with  only  three  or  four  officers  to  it,  but  every- 
thing was  done  in  the  best  military  style.  I  reported  to  him  and  was  assigned 
a  tent  and  a  striker — that  is  to  say,  an  enlisted  man  to  look  after  my  things 
and  my  comfort  generally  and  to  strike  my  tent  when  camp  was  moved,  whence 
the  name.  Bugler  Molloy  he  was  called,  and  his  duty  was  to  sound  the 
calls  to  the  various  duties  of  the  day.  I  found  that  sick  call  was  at  seven 
o'clock  in  the  morning  in  the  winter.  This  came  rather  hard  to  me,  and 
after  a  week  of  the  so-called  beneficent  early  rising  I  told  Molloy  not  to 
sound  the  sick  call  until  7:30.  Oh,  what  a  row  I  got  into!  The  officer  of 
the  day  demanded  of  the  sergeant  why  he  was  behind  time,  and  he  got  at 
Molloy,  and  Molloy  saved  himself  by  telling  of  my  order.  Hence  I  in  turn 
received  a  command  to  report  to  the  Captain,  who  told  me  sharply  that  he  was 
the  only  one  who  could  give  such  directions,  and  that  existing  orders  would 
he  continued.  So  I  got  up  thereafter  at  seven  o'clock  and  dosed  the  men  as 
required. 

Captain  Best,  who  afterward  became  Colonel  of  the  same  regiment,  was 
usually  followed  in  winters,  or  at  other  times  if  the  probabilities  of  a  pro- 
longed camp  obtained,  by  his  wife,  a  large,  stout  and  very  pleasant  woman, 
who  took  charge  of  his  tent  and  his  things,  and  particularly  supervised  our 
service  mess,  greatly  to  our  advantage.  The  Captain  one  day  at  dinner  stood 
up  and  said  that  he  had  in  several  ways  rather  roughly  handled  "Pills,"  as 
all  the  army  officers  called  the  assistant  surgeons  (calling  a  full  surgeon 
"Doctor"  or  "Major"),  but  he  must  now  take  all  back  and  publicly  acknowl- 
edge his  skill,  "for,"  he  continued,  "three  days  ago  I  was  suffering  from  chills, 
etcetera,  for  which  he  (Pills)  gave  me  remedies  which  have  restored  me 
promptly  to  health.  If  you  don't  believe  this,  here  are  the  pills  he  prescribed." 
and  he  pulled  them  out  of  his  vest  pocket  and  rattled  them  on  the  table.  The 
only  doubt,  he  added,  was  that  if  so  powerfully  efficacious  when  carried  on 
his  person,  they  might  have  proved  dangerous  when  carried  in  his  person ! 

Soon  after  this  I  was  summoned  to  the  Department  Medical  Director's 


AND    APPENDICES  45 


office  to  receive  orders  to  take  charge  of  a  small  hospital  of  about  one  hundred 
beds,  on  what  was  called  Braddock  Hill,  at  Frederick,  Maryland,  where  in 
the  previous  century  and  before  the  Revolutionary  War  there  had  been 
erected  for  General  Braddock  and  his  troops  stone  barracks  of  considerable 
size  and  situated  in  a  large,  grassy  enclosure.  He,  his  officers  and  troops 
occupied  these  buildings  and  grounds  the  winter  before  he  made  his  fatal 
advance  to  the  French  Fort  Duquesne,  a  fight  that  disgraced  Braddock,  but 
gave  renown  to  Colonel  Washington.  This  hospital  now  contained  a  large 
number  of  Wisconsin  soldiers,  afflicted  with  a  serious  epidemic  of  measles 
which  had  a  large  mortality.  From  some  source  the  Medical  Director  heard 
that  I  was  a  New  York  Hospital  graduate,  and  he  thereupon  put  me  in 
charge  of  this  hospital  with  several  good  assistants.  I  was  quickly  enabled 
by  cleanliness,  fresh  air,  by  open-hearth  fires  and  good  diet,  to  terminate  the 
mortality  rate  of  those  in  the  hospital,  and  the  suggestions  of  the  Medical 
Director  to  clean  up  the  outlying  field  camps  by  substituting  mattresses  for 
the  loose,  moldy  straw  used  for  bedding  soon  stopped  the  further  development 
of  such  cases.  But  the  Medical  Director  told  me  I  seemed  to  know  how  to 
run  a  hospital  better  than  the  surgeon  who  had  preceded  me.  If  I  did,  it  was 
only  owing  to  my  persistent  curiosity  as  House  Surgeon  at  the  New  York 
Hospital,  where,  in  addition  to  my  surgical  knowledge,  I  had  acquired,  by 
its  exercise  and  by  virtue  of  poking  around,  a  good  deal  of  information  as  to 
the  cooking,  ventilation,  etc.,  etc.  This  knowledge  I  had  put  to  good  use 
in  my  military  hospital  work.  This  work  was  hard  and  incessant,  except  in 
winter,  when  military  action  was  in  abeyance. 

I  u  as  not  allowed  to  go  back  to  my  military  camp,  but  was  kept  at  the 
hospital  until  the  following  Spring  of  1862,  when  great  military  activity 
arose  in  this  section  of  the  country,  and  the  hospital  increased  in  size  by  the 
addition  of  numerous  single-storied  wide  pavilions  of  wood,  holding  each 
from  forty  to  fifty  patients.  The  Sisters  of  Charity  from  Emmetsburg  nearby 
offered  their  intelligent  services  and  were  thankfully  accepted  by  me.  They 
wen-  faithful,  kind  to  the  patients  and  cleanly,  and  were  unsurpassed  by  the 
ordinal*;  female  nurses  obtained  haphazard.  They,  however,  never  equaled 
in  skill  and  training  the  hospital  nurse  of  today.  The  growth  of  this  hospital 
was  due  mainly  to  its  being  the  nearest  one  to  the  battle  grounds  of  the 
Shenandoah  Vallej  and  to  the  fields  of  South  Mountain,  Antietam  and  to 
Gettysburg  (partially).  It  rose  to  the  capacity  of  3,000  patients  and  my 
assistants  increased  to  twenty-five  in  number,  exclusive  of  some  six  or  eight 
Medical  C  adets,  as  certain  selected  young  graduates  and  undergraduates  were 
called.     In  the  medical  staff  were  men  who  subsequentlj  became  well  known 

in    their    profession,    such    as    Dr.    W.    W.    Keen,    who    came    with    me    as   an 

ng  Assistanl  Surgeon,  i.  e.,  a  civil,  paid  ^- 1  ilt<< >•  i  with  a  temporary  rank, 
who  later  passed  the  examination  as  Assistant  Surgeon  oi   the  I  .  S.  Army, 


46  CIVIL    WAR     RECOLLECTIONS 

but  before  his  commission  arrived  left  me  to  join  with  Dr.  S.  Weir  Mitchell 
in  the  starting  of  a  hospital  in  Philadelphia  for  the  treatment  of  military 
injury  of  nerves,  and  who  has  since  risen  to  the  top  rank  in  the  medical 
profession  of  the  United  States.  Dr.  George  L.  Porter,  an  Assistant  Sur- 
geon in  the  U.  S.  Army,  was  also  with  me.  He  achieved  eminence  and 
is  still  living  at  Bridgeport,  Conn.  Dr.  A.  B.  Ball,  later  one  of  the  phy- 
sicians of  the  New  York  Hospital  (1882-1905),  and  Dr.  David  Magie, 
subsequently  noted  physicians  in  New  York,  were  also  on  my  staff.  A 
laughable  incident  happened  to  one  of  these  Assistant  Surgeons,  a  Dr.  Golds- 
borough.  Our  occasional  outbreaks  of  smallpox  were  treated  in  a  small 
enclosure  just  outside  the  main  hospital  grounds,  where  in  addition  to  a  small 
ward  was  a  sleeping  room  for  the  doctors,  who  were  allotted  a  week's  duty 
in  turn,  medicines  and  food  for  the  patients  and  physician  being  carried  to 
a  shed  nearby  the  door.  This  Dr.  Goldsborough  sought  me  and  asked  that 
his  eventuated  turn  of  duty  in  this  hospital  be  changed,  giving  as  his  excuse, 
with  some  hesitation,  that  he  was  courting  a  girl  in  the  town  and  that  he 
feared  ill  fortune  might  result  if  she  knew  he  was  on  duty  in  the  smallpox 
hospital.  He  had  secured  an  exchange  with  one  of  the  staff,  but  required 
my  assent  to  this  procedure.  I  smiled  and  granted  his  request.  The  Sunday 
following  he  was  seen  in  full  uniform  en  route  with  his  inamorata  to  one 
of  the  small  churches  in  the  neighborhood.  Two  days  later  he  said  he  was 
ready  to  go  to  the  smallpox  hospital,  and  from  one  of  his  associates  it  was 
learned  that  the  rupture  in  his  affairs  had  arisen  in  a  ridiculous  way.  In  the 
little  church  the  collection  was  taken  up  in  a  bag  with  a  long  handle,  which 
was  thrust  to  the  depth  of  the  pew  and  slowly  withdrawn  to  the  aisle  to 
accommodate  the  various  donors.  When  the  inward  pass  of  the  bag  took 
place  Dr.  Goldsborough  thrust  his  hand  in  his  pocket  to  get  a  good  sized 
piece  of  silver  as  a  contribution ;  he  found  that  he  had  only  one  large,  old- 
fashioned  copper  cent.  This  he  tried,  as  the  bag  reached  him  next  the  aisle, 
to  drop  unobtrusively  into  it,  when  alas,  some  joggle  threw  the  coin  outside 
the  bag  and  it  slipped  with  much  noise  to  the  floor  of  the  broad  aisle,  where 
instead  of  quietly  reposing  it  gyrated  around  several  times,  attracting  a  good 
deal  of  attention,  and  particularly  that  of  his  lass,  who  gave  him  the  cold 
shoulder  for  his  stinginess,  and,  as  he  said,  dropped  him  entirely. 

My  New  York  Hospital  "stunts"  helped  me  in  my  hospital  duties  greatly. 
Daily  inspections  of  everything  culinary  and  medical  by  the  Medical  Officer 
of  the  day  and  by  myself  and  staff  every  Sunday  held  cleanliness  and  proper 
ventilation  with  warmth  up  to  the  highest  level,  and  the  maintenance  of  com- 
plete medical  and  surgical  histories,  with  due  preparation  of  all  interesting 
specimens  and  daily  reports  of  cases  requiring  medical  or  other  consultation, 
kept  all  busy,  with  such  an  effect  that  the  Medical  Inspectors  in  their 
rounds  would  speak  well  of  the  U.  S.  Army  General  Hospital  at  Frederick, 


AND     APPENDICES  47 


Maryland,  and  the  Surgeon-General  himself,  in  his  less  frequent  visits,  was 
kind  enough  to  commend  our  efforts  in  an  official  letter  from  his  office.*  I 
remained  on  duty  here  until  the  end  of  the  war,  when  I  resigned  my  com- 
mission and  returned  to  New  York  to  build  up  a  practice. 

Before  going  on  further,  I  should  like  to  say  a  wTord  about  this  Surgeon- 
General,  who  was  Dr.  William  A.  Hammond.  He  was  an  Assistant  Surgeon, 
U.  S.  A.,  and  was  elevated  by  reason  of  his  executive  ability  to  the  position  of 
the  army's  chief  medical  officer  and  had  performed  his  duties,  we  juniors  all 
thought,  ably  and  promptly,  and  in  spite  of  the  subsequent  successful  attack 
on  him  by  the  arrogant  but  able  Secretary  of  War  Stanton,  which  cost  Ham- 
mond his  position,  he  was  respected  for  what  he  had  done  for  the  Medical 
Department  of  the  Army. 

After  his  dismissal  from  the  service,  Hammond  went  to  New  York  and 
engaged  in  practice  and  made  a  rapid  success  in  the  specialty  of  brain  and 
nerve  disorders.  In  the  excitement  that  followed  the  homicidal  wounding 
of  President  Garfield  he,  with  many  other  medical  men  who  were  interviewed 
by  the  besieging  reporters,  strongly  expressed  the  view  that  the  published 
bulletins  on  the  President's  case  showed  the  existence  of  retained  pus  and 
that  an  exit  for  it  ought,  if  possible,  to  be  effected.  One  morning  I  received 
a  note  from  Hammond  in  which  he  said  he  had  just  been  interviewed  by  a 
Mr.  Thompson  from  the  State  Department  at  Washington,  who  informed 
him  that  at  a  Cabinet  meeting  held  last  night  it  had  been  determined  to 
change  the  President's  physicians,  and  that  he  had  been  sent  to  ask  him  to 
take  charge  and  proceed  at  once  to  Washington.  Furthermore,  he  was  re- 
quested to  bring  with  him  a  reliable  surgeon  who  should  be  experienced  in 
gunshot  wounds.  Would  I  go  with  him?  If  so,  would  I  meet  him  at  the 
Jersey  City  Ferry,  this  side,  at  three  o'clock?  I  replied  affirmatively  and  at 
the  hour  appointed  was  at  the  ferry  with  my  instrument  and  suit  case, 
and  found  Dr.  Hammond  there  waiting  for  Mr.  Thompson,  who  was 
behindhand.  Time  passed  and  no  Thompson.  We  waited  until  after  the 
next  train  for  Washington  had  left,  hut  did  not  see  the  Government  Agent. 
During  the  waiting,  naturally  I  plied  Dr.  Hammond  with  the  usual  ques- 
tion^, as  to  Thompson's  appearance,  and  what  he  said,  etc.,  etc.  Among  the 
details  thus  elicited  was  one  that  immediately  attracted  my  attention.  It 
appears  that  as  the  agent  was  about  leaving,  he  said  he  must  hurry,  as  he  wished 
to  stop  at  the  Second  National  Hank  to  get  a  check  cashed.  Dr.  Hammond 
told  him  that  if  tin-  check  was  not  a  large  one,  he  might  he  able  to  save  his 
time  and  cash  it  for  him.  "I  shall  only  want  about  twenty-five  dollars,"  and 
dn-w    a  check    tor  that  amount,   which    Dr.   Hammond  cashed. 

So  I  said,  "Dr.  Hammond,  I   think  jve  had  better  stop  at  tin's  hank  as 

■.    uptown    and    inquire    about    the   check."       We    dill    so,    and    the    answer 


Appendix   \ 


48  CIVIL    WAR    RECOLLECTIONS 

by  the  paying  teller  was,  "No  account  here."  Hammond  was  much  mortified, 
as  I  was  also,  at  this  hoax,  and  begged  that  I  would  keep  the  matter  quiet. 
This  I  have  done,  and  until  now  have  never  made  any  public  allusion  to  the 
matter. 

While  in  the  field  I  had  been  for  a  short  time  on  a  board  of  which  there 
were  many  started,  to  winnow  out  the  unworthy  ones  of  the  many  regimental 
medical  officers.  Many  queer  and  ridiculous  answers  were  given  to  our 
questions.  Drs.  Hammond  and  Letterman,  Medical  Directors  of  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac,  constituted,  with  another  whose  name  I  forget,  the  Board 
of  Examiners,  stationed  at  Washington.  After  five  or  six  doctors  had  been 
before  them,  Dr.  Hammond  said,  "Letterman,  I  notice  that  one  of  your 
regular  questions,  presumed  to  test  the  man's  literary  intelligence,  is,  'Who 
wrote  the  Book  of  Job?'  I  think  that's  a  pretty  tough  one,  and  though  I 
claim  to  have  a  fair  literary  intelligence,  I'll  be  hanged  if  I  know  who  did 
write  it."  Letterman  replied,  with  a  twinkling  eye,  "I  don't  know  either, 
Hammond;  I'm  trying  to  find  out." 

Maryland  was  invaded  in  this  part  twice,  and  each  time  I  was  made  a 
prisoner  and  was  threatened  the  last  time  (Earley's  invasion)  with  a  trip  to 
the  Libby  prison  at  Richmond,  Va.  The  first  time  occurred  when  Lee's 
army  swarmed  across  the  Potomac,  to  be  checked  by  the  battles  at  South 
Mountain  and  at  Antietam.  We  had  been  forewarned,  and  nearly  all  my 
extra  stores  had  been  concealed  or  destroyed,  and  all  movable  patients  shipped 
to  Baltimore  when  the  enemy  arrived.  Stonewall  Jackson's  men  camped  in  the 
hospital  grounds,  having  made  a  march  of  twenty-four  miles,  and  I  couldn't 
help  complimenting  one  of  the  officers  on  their  sturdy  appearance.  He 
answered  only,  "You  don't  know  how  much  we  have  done  and  how  many 
we  have  lost  to  have  such  fellows."  I  might  have  had  trouble,  but  in  one  of 
the  Louisiana  regiments  I  recognized  a  medical  friend,  who  said  when  I 
hoped  to  be  allowed  to  stay  and  care  for  my  northern  soldiers,  "Don't  you 
worry  about  that,  I'll  fix  it."  In  about  an  hour  he  returned  with  an  order 
putting  him  in  charge  of  the  hospital,  with  southern  doctors  for  southern 
patients  and  myself  and  my  assistants  for  the  northern  sick  and  wounded. 

This  condition  of  affairs  lasted  but  a  few  days,  when  we  learned  that 
the  United  States  troops  were  en  route  under  McClellan  and  would  probably 
be  in  Frederick  in  forty-eight  hours.  The  next  day  the  soldiers  of  Lee, 
tramping  westward  all  the  day  long,  passed  in  close  column  with  few  stops 
through  Patrick  Street,  which  led  towards  South  Mountain  and  Antietam. 
I  was  standing  within  fifty  feet  of  a  spot  that  was  soon  to  become  noted  by 
reason  of  Whittier's  poem  of  "Barbara  Frietche."  No  such  incident  occurred 
as  was  given  in  that  wonderful  poem,  no  volley  was  fired  or  attempted  to  be 
fired  at  her,  nor  did  Stonewall  Jackson's  troops  pass  her  door,  for  they  turned 
two  to  three  hundred  feet  short  of  her  house  and  into  another  road  to  avoid 


AND    APPENDICES  49 


the  crest  of  the  main  road.  Barbara,  however,  did  exist — she  was  an  old 
woman  almost  if  not  in  her  dotage,  who  sat  at  an  upper  window  looking  at 
the  passing  troops  and  held  a  small  toy  American  flag  in  her  hand,  which  did 
not  attract  any  special  notice. 

Our  soldiers  got  in  the  next  morning,  things  had  quieted  down  and  I 
had  gone,  as  had  become  rather  habitual  with  me,  to  the  house  of  Miss 
Maria  Washington  McPherson,  one  of  the  belles  of  the  place  and  to  whom 
I  was  subsequently  married.  She  was  a  great-great-grandniece  of  George 
Washington  in  the  line  of  his  brother  Samuel.  (I've  never  found  out 
that  this  progenitor  of  my  wife  had  any  special  merit  except,  as  I  learned 
later,  that  he  had  been  the  husband  of  five  wives,  and  that  on  his  decease  he 
was  placed  so  as  to  be  surrounded  by  their  remains.)  Miss  McPherson  was 
also  by  her  Todd  relatives  in  Kentucky  a  great-grandniece  of  the  famous 
Dolly  Madison,  and  at  the  Centennial  ball  given  in  New  York  in  1876  she 
was  selected  as  the  representative  of  the  Washington  family.  I  know  I  shall 
be  pardoned  for  these  allusions  to  this  charming  woman.* 

While  I  was,  as  I  said,  at  Miss  McPherson's  house  playing  a  game  of 
euchre  with  her  parents — for  I  had  been  told  that  who  would  the  daughter 
win,  must  with  the  parents  first  begin — the  game  was  interrupted  by  the 
entrance  of  my  chief  hospital  steward,  who  said,  "Doctor,  General  Mc- 
Clellan  wants  to  see  you."  "What  do  you  mean,  steward?"  I  said.  Draw- 
ing himself  to  his  full  height  and  with  a  formal  salute,  he  said,  "Dr.  Weir, 
Major-General  McClellan  desires  your  immediate  presence  at  the  hospital." 
Thereupon  I  went  and  found  the  Commanding  General  and  his  Medical 
Director,  Dr.  Letterman.  The  General  in  a  few  words  asked  me  how  many 
beds  I  had.  I  told  him,  and  he  said,  "That  is  not  enough — I  expect  a  battle 
with  the  enemy  tomorrow  at  South  Mountain  Pass,  and  possibly  further  on. 
I  direct  you  to  secure  accommodation  for  3,000  to  5,000  (looking  then  at 
Dr.  Letterman,  who  nodded)  wounded."  I  saluted  and  left,  followed  by 
Dr.  Letterman,  who  directed  me  to  take  possession  of  all  the  churches,  except 
one  Protestant  and  one  Catholic  one,  and  all  the  hotels  and  schools  that  I 
needed.  He  further  wired  Baltimore  to  send  me  all  the  necessary  beds, 
bedding  and  supplies.  With  my  assistants  and  steward,  how  I  did  hustle  that 
night  and  the  next.  With  gangs  of  carpenters,  floors  were  laid  on  the  tops 
of  all  the  church  pews,  stoves  for  cooking  put  in,  etc.,  etc.  By  night  time 
some  4..01H)  beds  were  ready.  I  he  only  hitch  I  had  was  bettering  a  volunteer 
Brigade  Surgeon,  whose  rank  was  higher  than  mine.  He  refused  to  be  under 
me,  but  when  I  told  him,  Learning  that  he  was  a  Catholic,  that  if  he  would 
take  charge  ol  the  Seminary  belonging  to  them,  which   I  had  occupied  as  a 

hospital,    I    wouldn't    bother   him    nor   he   me    until    an    officer   who    ranked    us 

*    be  died  in  Milan,  ttal)    in  [900,  while  we  were  <ni  our  usual  vacation  travel,  leaving 
a  daughter,  now  Mrs.  Alice  Wa  hington  La  Montagne. 


50  CIVIL    WAR    RECOLLECTIONS 

both  might  arrive.     He  had  been  at  some  time  past  in  the  regular  army,  was 
a  good  surgeon  and  aside  from  this  episode  did  not  interfere  with  me. 

Thirty-six  hours  after  my  interview  with  General  McClellan  the  wounded 
began  to  pour  in  from  the  battle  at  South  Mountain,  some  fifteen  miles  dis- 
tant. They  were,  of  course,  the  mobile  ones,  and  most  were  shipped  by  train 
to  Baltimore.  A  few  days  later  came  the  large  battle  of  Antietam.  All 
the  hospitals  were  filled  to  overflowing,  operations  of  various  kinds  were 
going  on  from  dawn  to  bedtime.  In  every  operating  room  I  placed  a  head 
surgeon,  not  always  for  the  operation,  but  for  the  final  decision.  The  Sanitary 
and  Christian  Commissions,  particularly  the  former,  rendered  most  efficient 
help  in  materials  and  men,  particularly  with  the  excellent  selection  of  pro- 
fessional men,  such  as  I  have  already  spoken  of — Drs.  Buck,  Post,  Peters 
and  others  from  Philadelphia  and  Boston  as  well.  Dr.  Oliver  Wendell 
Holmes  I  also  saw.  He  was  hunting  for  his  wounded  son.  Not  finding 
him  at  Frederick,  I  assisted  his  advance  to  the  front,  where  his  son  was.  As 
time  went  on  the  town  hospitals  were  gradually  closed  up  and  one  by  one 
the  severe  patients  transferred  to  the  General  Hospital  and  the  lighter  ones 
to  Baltimore,  and  in  the  course  of  two  to  four  weeks  the  emptying  of  the 
cases  necessarily  held  in  the  camp  and  field  hospital  took  place.  I  found  by 
that  time  that  I  had  over  150  gunshot  fractures  of  the  thigh  and  some  75 
wounds  of  the  knee  joint  in  my  wards.  In  spite  of  the  liberal  incisions  made 
in  these  suppurating  joints  or  the  many  suppurating  pockets,  the  complications 
of  erysipelas,  hospital  gangrene  and  pyaemia  kept  up,  conjoined  with  frequent 
secondary  hemorrhage  from  a  damaged  or  sloughing  artery.  All  this  begat 
a  heavy  mortality.  The  best  surgical  work  of  the  camp  hospitals  was  ren- 
dered by  Dr.  J.  W.  S.  Gouley,*  of  the  regular  army,  and  his  patients  showed 
well  his  care  when  they  got  to  our  wards. 

The  only  wound  dressings  that  approached  unwittingly  to  antisepticism 
were  the  balsam  of  peru  and  solutions  of  corrosive  sublimate,  the  first  a 
mild  and  uncertain  germicide  and  used  freely  on  wounds,  particularly  when 
they  were  granulating,  it  being  supposed  to  favor  cicatrization,  and  the  latter 
was  reserved  for  injecting  into  slow-healing  wound  tracks  or  sinuses — for 
which  it  often  acted  very  well,  though  we  did  not  then  know  it  was  one  of 
our  present  most  potent  germicides.  Of  course  we  then  did  not  know  any- 
thing about  germicides.  It  was  only  late  in  1864  and  in  1865  that  rumors 
of  the  excellent  action  of  carbolic  acid  reached  us,  and  the  medical  purveyors 
sent  us  a  mixture  of  earth  impregnated  slightly  with  carbolic  acid,  which 
was  so  messy  and  troublesome  that  no  earnest  trial  was  ever  made  of  it. 

The  phrase   "secondary  hemorrhage"  brings  to  mind   how  a  "skulker" 


*  Dr.  Gouley  was  later  Surgeon  to  the  Bellevue  and  St.  Vincent's  Hospitals,  and  is  yet 
living  in  New  York  at  a  greatly  advanced  age. 


AND    APPENDICES  51 


was  foiled  in  his  malingering  efforts  to  get  a  discharge.  He  entered  our 
hospital  voiceless  from  a  recent  sore  throat,  but  was  otherwise  in  good  con- 
dition. After  a  while  he  was  used,  as  many  slightly  disabled  soldiers  were, 
as  an  orderly  or  assistant  in  the  wards  and  did  the  work  well.  But  after 
six  or  eight  weeks  of  this  duty,  he  demanded  his  discharge  from  the  service 
and  was  ordered  before  our  examining  board,  who  held  up  his  case,  suspecting 
he  might  be  shamming,  and  had  him  carefully  wratched  day  and  night.  Even 
the  heroic  remedy  advised  by  Dr.  George  Suckley,  U.  S.  A.  (House  Surgeon 
at  the  New  York  Hospital,  1854),  °f  blistering  the  spine  in  sections  its  full 
length,  beginning  at  the  neck  and  reaching  in  time  to  the  buttocks,  was  tried 
without  result.  I  even  had  him  etherized,  thinking  that  in  entering  or  re- 
covering from  his  anaesthesia  he  might  speak,  but  he  didn't.  I  directed, 
therefore,  his  papers  to  be  made  out  and  to  be  ready  for  me  to  sign  and  for- 
ward the  next  day  to  the  Adjutant-General's  office  at  Washington,  when  the 
man's  fat  fell  in  the  fire  most  unexpectedly  and  in  this  way.  Each  of  my 
assistants  acted  in  turn  as  medical  officer  of  the  day  and  waited  and  slept  in 
his  clothes  after  his  ward  work  was  done  in  the  room  devoted  to  that  purpose. 
The  suspected  man  was  a  nurse  in  Dr.  Paullin's  ward.  Dr.  Shimer's  name 
was  up  as  the  medical  officer  of  the  day  and  his  name  was  duly  displayed  out- 
side the  door,  but  this  evening  Dr.  Shimer  had  asked  Paullin  to  take  his  place 
while  he  went  to  the  town  to  attend  a  dance.  The  stage  being  now  arranged, 
the  catastrophe  follows.  About  one  o'clock  the  medical  officer  of  the  day's 
room  was  burst  open  and  this  nurse  entered,  screaming  in  a  loud  voice, 
"Doctor,  Doctor,  come  over  to  Ward  N  at  once;  Jenkins  is  bleeding  to 
death!"  Paullin,  as  he  jumped  up,  said,  "I'll  be  right  over,  but  I'm  glad 
you've  got  your  voice  back."  The  detected  man  was  returned  to  his  regiment 
the  next  day. 

Since  the  above  was  written  and  discursive  jottings  were,  as  I  thought, 
finished,  I  had  the  opportunity  of  meeting  the  Alumni  of  the  New  York  Hos- 
pital at  their  last  annual  dinner  (1917),  when  I  had  the  great  pleasure  of 
renewing  my  youth  with  their  glad  and  affectionate  greetings.  I  sat  during 
the  repast  between  Dr.  Turnure,  one  of  my  former  house  surgeons,  and  Dr. 
Pool,  one  of  Dr.  Hull's  former  house  surgeons,  and  both  of  them  now  attend- 
ing surgeons  of  the  New  York  Hospital.  Most  enjoyable  was  their  conver- 
sation and  narration  of  joint  reminiscences.  ( )f  the  many  things  touched 
upon  each  particular!)  recalled  interesting  memories.  Dr.  Turnure  particu- 
larly recalled  to  me  the  hopes  thai  tailed  me  after  a  particularly  success- 
ful operation  which  maj  be  considered  as  an  adjunct  to  the  plastic  ones  that 
I  have  spoken  of  in  connection  with  Dr.  Buck's  surgical  work,  as  narrated 
in  in\  reminiscences  (page  27).  Dr.  Turnure 's  corpse  reviver  was,  that  1 
had  been  consulted  when  in  mj  active  period  ot  work  In  a  wealthy  Hebrew 
whose  principal  question  was,  could   I   straighten  his  nose  and  give  him,  as 


52  CIVIL    WAR    RECOLLECTIONS 

he  said,  a  Christian  nose  without  scarring  his  face.  I  said  it  could  be  done, 
and  so  he  submitted  to  etherization,  under  which,  after  the  plan  of  Dr.  Roe, 
of  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  I  separated  through  the  nostrils  the  skin  from  the  car- 
tilage and  bones  of  the  nose  and  by  the  same  route  was  able  to  pare  off  enough 
of  the  cartilage  to  bring  the  nasal  curved  line  to  a  straight  one.  Not  satisfied, 
the  patient  a  short  time  afterward  asked  to  have  the  width  of  the  nose  dimin- 
ished. This  also  was  effected  without  perceptible  scar,  thanks  to  using  the 
natural  lines  at  the  junction  of  the  nose  with  the  cheeks.  Still  another 
operation  was  demanded — to  overcome  the  turned-out  full  lips.  By  taking 
out  a  transverse  piece  on  the  inside  of  the  lips  I  drew  the  lips  inward  along 
their  edges,  much  to  the  patient's  and  my  own  satisfaction.  I  was  compelled, 
however,  at  his  next  request,  to  admit  that  I  could  do  nothing  to  change  the 
character  of  his  large,  reddish-brown  eyes,  so  characteristic  of  his  race.  He  ex- 
pressed his  thanks  largely  and  paid  his  bill  in  the  same  way,  and  was  about  to 
go  away  when  I  asked  how  he  managed  to  escape  the  queries  of  his  family  and 
friends  during  the  two  or  three  weeks  that  were  required  for  the  doing  and 
completing  of  these  several  operations.  He  said  he  told  them  he  had  been  all 
this  time  nominally  at  Washington.  I  further  inquired,  and  in  this  I  had  a 
strong  personal  reason,  for  as  I  looked  on  the  successful  change  in  his  features 
I  could  not  but  feel  that  a  large  and  lucrative  specialty  was  opening  to  me,  so 
as  I  said  I  inquired  what  his  family  and  friends  thought  of  his  face.  Here  he 
dashed  all  my  hopes  to  the  ground  when  he  said  with  a  sly  laugh,  "I  tell 
them  it  all  happened  while  I  was  away  by  being  thrown  from  my  horse  and 
landing  on  my  face  and  that  this  pushed  my  nose  straight!" 

Dr.  Pool  said  that  when  he  was  a  medical  student  he  attended  the  first 
surgical  lecture  which  I  delivered  in  the  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons 
in  1892.  He  alluded  to  one  point  in  that  lecture  which  was  on  the  changes 
that  might  follow  the  simple  cut  of  a  razor  in  shaving,  which  opened  up  a 
large  chapter  of  surgical  pathology,  which  he  said  I  delivered  con  amove.  He 
said  he  remembered  I  had  in  illustration  of  the  help  afforded  by  a  rag  or  the 
like  held  against  the  little  wound  in  arresting  the  bleeding  by  mechanically 
promoting  coagulation  of  the  blood ;  that  I  told  them  that  my  father  kept  all 
his  old  summer  furry  high  hats  (1 840-50)  for  this  particular  purpose — that 
is  to  say,  for  pulling  out  a  bit  of  the  fur  and  pressing  it  against  the  bleeding 
spot.     It  was  such  a  novelty  to  Dr.  Pool  that  he  never  forgot  it. 


AND    APPENDICES  53 


APPENDIX    A 

(See  page  47) 

Surgeon-General's  Office 

Washington  City,  July  16,  1862. 

Sir — I  am  directed  by  the  Surgeon-General  to  express  to  you  his  gratifi- 
cation at  hearing  the  many  encomiums  bestowed  upon  the  hospital  under  your 
charge.  These  praises,  referring  both  to  the  police  and  good  order  of  the 
hospital,  and  also  to  the  general  good  management  by  yourself,  have  reached 
this  Department,  not  only  through  irresponsible  and  therefore  unreliable 
sources,  but  through  the  official  reports  of  its  authorized  inspectors.  Early 
after  your  entry  into  the  service  you  were  placed  in  a  position  of  trust  and 
responsibility,  and  you  have  not  belied  the  judgment  of  this  Department  when 
selecting  you,  first,  for  one  of  its  members,  and  afterwards,  to  fill  one  of  its 
most  important  positions.  The  Surgeon-General  believes  and  trusts  that  the 
industry  and  ability  which  you  have  already  displayed  you  will  continue  to 
manifest  and  develop  to  the  credit  of  the  corps  of  which  he  has  the  honor  to 
be  the  head. 

Very  respectfully  your  obedient  servant. 


By  order, 


Asst.  Surgeon  R.  F.  Weir,  U.  S.  A., 
General  Hospital,  Frederick,  Md. 


Jos.  R.  Smith, 
Asst.  Surg.,  JJ.  S.  A. 


54  CIVIL    WAR    RECOLLECTIONS 


APPENDIX    B 

(See  page  38) 

THE  SOCIETY  OF  THE  NEW  YORK  HOSPITAL 
No.  8  West  i6th  Street 

New  York,  May  2,  1900. 
Robert  F.  Weir,  M.D., 
37  West  33RD  Street. 

Dear  Doctor: 

I  beg  to  inform  you  that  at  a  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Governors  of 
the  Society  of  the  New  York  Hospital,  held  the  1st  instant,  your  commu- 
nication, tendering  your  resignation  as  Attending  Surgeon  to  the  Hospital, 
was  duly  laid  before  them,  whereupon,  on  motion,  the  following  resolution 
was  adopted: 

Resolved,  That  the  resignation  of  Dr.  Robert  F.  Weir  as  Attending 
Surgeon  to  the  Hospital  is  hereby  duly  received  and  accepted,  with  the  thanks 
of  the  Board  of  Governors  for  his  long,  faithful  and  distinguished  services 
rendered  to  the  Hospital. 

I  have  the  honor  to  remain, 

Very  respectfully, 

Henry  W.  Crane,  Secretary. 


AND.  APPENDICES  55 


APPENDIX    C 

(See  page  38) 

William  Warner  Hoppin 
Trinity  Building,  No.  iii  Broadway 

New  York,  May  3,  1900. 
My  Dear  Dr.  Weir: 

Although  I  was  not  able  to  be  present  at  the  meeting  of  the  Board  of 
Governors  of  the  New  York  Hospital  yesterday,  I  am  told  that  your  resigna- 
tion was  presented  and  accepted. 

I  cannot  allow  such  an  occasion  as  this  to  pass  without  expressing  to  you 
as  an  individual  my  sincere  appreciation  of  the  splendid  work  that  you  have 
done  while  Attending  Surgeon  at  the  Hospital,  and  of  your  untiring  devotion 
to  its  interests. 

\  ou  have  reached  a  position  in  the  profession  which  entitles  you  to  well- 
earned  rest,  but  I  understand  that  this  is  not  to  be  the  case,  but  that  in  an- 
other institution  you  are  to  continue  in  active  hospital  practice,  not  only  as 
surgeon  but  as  instructor. 

Believe  me,  my  dear  Doctor,  with  sentiments  of  sincere  esteem, 

Yours  faithfully, 

Wm.  W.  Hoppin. 


56  CIVIL    WAR    RECOLLECTIONS 


APPENDIX    D 

On  the  occasion  of  the  presentation  of  the  required  portrait  of  the 
retiring  President  of  the  New  York  Academy  of  Medicine,  in  1902,  Dr. 
Joseph  D.  Bryant,  one  of  its  former  presidents,  made  the  following  remarks: 

Mr.  President  and  Fellows  of  the  Academy:  It  is,  indeed,  a  welcome 
privilege  for  me  to  be  permitted  to  speak  of  a  friend  on  an  occasion  of  this 
kind.  Under  these  circumstances  one  is  inclined  to  tell  of  the  professional 
attainments  of  the  friend,  and  under  all  proper  surroundings  one  should 
declare  the  friend's  loyal  adherence  to  probity  and  to  his  own  friends,  speak- 
ing also  of  his  kind  and  genial  nature,  ever  shedding  its  sunshine,  without 
shadows,  on  all  who  came  within  the  sphere  of  his  influence.  If  our  entire 
profession  were  here  this  evening,  it  would  be  a  supererogation  on  my  part 
to  recite  the  achievements  of  our  much-respected  Fellow  in  the  field  of  his 
choice.  For  along  the  pathway  of  surgical  endeavor,  both  at  home  and 
abroad,  for  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  are  frequently  noted  well-recog- 
nized and  enduring  evidences  of  Dr.  Weir's  thoughtful  and  beneficent  labors. 
His  teachings,  his  writings  and  his  practical  illustrations  in  surgery  have 
ever  been  constructive,  and  his  ideas  of  surgical  problems  and  of  surgical 
policies  are  both  wise  and  refreshing.  Fitting,  indeed,  is  it  that  this  excellent 
likeness  of  our  friend  should  be  made  fast  to  the  wall  of  this  institution, 
nearby  to  the  portraits  of  those  who  were  pioneers  in  the  Art  which  our 
esteemed  Fellow  so  aptly  graces — Valentine  Mott,  Van  Buren,  Hamilton 
and  Wood.  While  we  gladly  do  him  honor  here  at  this  time,  let  us  not  be 
unmindful  of  the  fact  that  already  he  has  been  highly  honored  abroad.  It 
is  not  at  all  strange,  I  think,  that  one  who  has  attained  well-grounded  emi- 
nence in  a  special  field  of  thought  or  effort,  requiring  for  the  purpose  earnest 
actions  based  on  honest  conceptions,  should  be  alike  loyal  to  wholesome  prin- 
ciples and  to  wholesome  friends.  If  this  be  true,  then  Dr.  Weir's  attributes 
in  these  respects  are  but  the  logical  heritage  of  an  honest  heart.  His  genial 
greeting,  his  warm  friendly  grasp  of  the  hand,  and  his  frequent  verbal  con- 
ceits are  like  unto  summer  showers,  delightful  and  refreshing,  serving  equally 
to  lighten  his  own  burdens  and  to  lessen  the  stress  of  those  of  his  Fellows. 
Were  he  here  at  this  minute,  might  he  not  properly  exclaim,  "In  speaking 
of  Dr.  Weir,  please,  Sir,  do  not  longer  wear-y  the  indulgent  listeners." 
Therefore,    heeding    this    imaginative    admonition,    I    will    humbly    request, 


AND     APPENDICES  57 


through  you,  Mr.  President,  that  the  Fellows  of  the  Academy  accept  this 
likeness  of  the  late  President,  Dr.  Robert  F.  Weir,  and  place  it  where  it  will 
ever  be  an  earnest  to  all  whose  worthy  ambition  may  prompt  them  to  emulate 
the  many  virtues  of  him  whom  this  work  of  art  so  well  portrays. 


58  CIVIL    WAR    RECOLLECTIONS 


APPENDIX    E 

(See  page  39) 

This  gift,  a  large,  silver,  two-handled  loving  cup,  was  presented  by  the 
spokesman  of  the  class,  Mr.  F.  Coerr,  in  a  short  speech  of  an  elegance  in 
diction  and  phrasing  that  much  resembled  the  style  of  Lincoln.  The  fol- 
lowing were  its  words: 

Professor  Weir: 

We,  your  students  of  this  school,  asked  you  to  come  here  today  that  you 
might  receive  at  our  hands  and  in  our  presence  a  reminder  of  our  good-will 
toward  you. 

It  is  not  for  ourselves  we  would  speak,  but  also  for  the  many  hundreds 
who  before  us  were  your  scholars,  and  who,  were  theirs  the  opportunity,  today 
would  gladly  do  as  we.  We  would  ask  you  not  to  look  upon  this  gift  as 
in  any  way  the  measure  of  our  regard,  but  rather  simply  as  a  token  of  the 
deep  respect  and  true  affection  in  which  we  hold  you.  And  this  with  reason: 
for  nations  other  than  ours  and  other  tongues  know  you  and  have  done  you 
honor.  Our  own  country  knows  you  and  honors  you ;  and  you  have  been 
pleased  to  be  her  servant,  a  good  citizen,  a  good  soldier,  in  times  of  peace,  in 
times  of  war. 

In  your  profession  you  have  stood  in  high  places,  but  in  none  more  hon- 
orable than  that  of  teacher.  We  have  been  your  students,  and  this  we  cannot 
soon  forget. 

Our  feeling  for  you  is  one  of  envy  of  your  skill — of  wonder  at  your  ex- 
perience— of  respect  for  the  teacher — of  affection  for  the  man. 

Doctor  Weir,  it  is  that  you  may  sometimes  recall  that  we,  your  scholars, 
have  held  you  thus,  that  we  ask  you  to  take  this,  our  gift. 


AND    APPENDICES  59 


APPENDIX    F 

(See  page  39) 

COLLEGE     OF    PHYSICIANS    AND     SURGEONS 

Medical  Department  of  Columbia  University 
New  York 

Resolutions  Adopted  by  the  Faculty  at  their  Meeting  Held   Monday, 

May  25th,  1903. 

At  a  meeting,  held  on  May  the  twenty-fifth,  nineteen  hundred  and  three, 
•of  the  Faculty  of  the  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons,  the  Medical 
Department  of  Columbia  University,  in  the  City  or  New  York,  it  was 
unanimously 

Resolved,  That  this  Faculty  desires  hereby  to  express  its  great  apprecia- 
tion of  the  eminent  services  rendered  to  his  medical  alma  mater  by 

ROBERT  FULTON  WEIR,  M.D., 

a  graduate  of  this  College  in  the  Class  of  eighteen  hundred  and  fifty-nine, 
and  an  officer  of  the  said  College  for  the  past  thirty-six  years. 

Twenty  years  ago  Dr.  Weir  was  appointed  Professor  of  Clinical  Surgery; 
and  ten  years  ago  he  was  called,  as  Professor  of  Surgery,  to  the  seat  in  this 
Faculty  from  which  he  has  lately  intimated  his  wish  to  retire. 

Dr.  Weir's  distinguished  career  as  a  teacher  has  been  coupled  with  a 
career  no  less  distinguished  as  a  private  and  public  practitioner  of  Surgery. 
He  was  tor  twenty-seven  years  Visiting  Surgeon  to  the  New  York  Hospital, 
and  he  has  held  the  same  office  at  St.  Luke's  Hospital,  the  Hcllevue  Hospital 
and  the  Roosevelt  Hospital. 

His  colleagues  on  each  side  of  the  Atlantic  have  borne  witness  to  his 
high  professional  repute  In  electing  him  President  of  the  New  York  Academy 
<,]  Medicine,  Presidenl  ot  the  American  Surgical  Association,  and  Honorary 
Fellow  of  the  Royal  College  ot  Surgeons  oi  London. 

01  Dr.  Weir's  colleagues  in  this  FacultJ  manj  have  enjoyed  the  benefit 
of  his  teaching,  and  all  unite  in  this  proffer  of  sincere  respecf  and  hearty  thanks. 


GO  CIVIL     WAR    RECOLLECTIONS 

Resolved,  That  the  foregoing  resolution  be  entered  at  large  in  the  minutes 
of  this  meeting,  and  that  a  copy  thereof  be  engrossed,  signed  by  the  President 
of  the  University  and  by  the  other  members  of  this  Faculty,  and  presented  to 
Dr.  Weir. 

Signatures:  Nicholas  Murray  Butler,  LL.D.,  President  of  the  Uni- 
versity. 

James  W.  McLane,  M.D.,  Dean. 

John  G.  Curtis,  M.D.,  Prof,  of  Physiology. 

George  M.  Tuttle,  M.D.,  Prof,  of  Gynecology. 

George  L.  Peabody,  M.D.,  Prof,  of  Materia  Medica  and 
Therapeutics. 

William  T.  Bull,  M.D.,  Prof,  of  Surgery. 

M.  Allen  Starr,  M.D.,  Prof,  of  Diseases  of  the  Mind  and 
Nervous  System. 

George  S.  Huntington,  M.D.,  Prof,  of  Anatomy. 

T.  Mitchell  Prudden,  M.D.,  Prof,  of  Pathology. 

Edwin  B.  Cragin,  M.D.,  Prof,  of  Obstetrics. 

Walter  B.  James,  M.D.,  Prof,  of  Practice  of  Medicine. 


AND     APPENDICES  61 


APPENDIX    G 

Dr.  J.  B.  Murphy 
Reliance  Building,  ioo  State  Street 

Chicago,  May  31,  1909. 

Dr.  Robert  F.  Weir, 

30  West  50th  Street,  New  York  City,  N.  Y. 

My  Dear  Doctor  Ji'tir: 

It  pleased  me  immensely  to  get  your  charming  letter  of  May  25th.  You 
have  always  been  so  generous  and  encouraging  to  me  in  my  work.  Your  life 
has  been  an  inspiration  to  every  man  in  the  surgical  field.  The  zeal,  scien- 
tific spirit  and  persistence  of  your  labor  would  make  a  splendid  model  for 
aspirants  in  the  medical  profession.  I  am  happy  that  this  last  procedure  * 
meets  with  your  approbation,  and  I  hope  to  get  a  case  in  the  near  future  in 
which  the  limb  can  be  actually  saved,  as  the  technic  is  easily  completed  on 
the  lines  you  reasoned  out  so  many  years  ago.  I  greatly  appreciate  the  spirit 
of  your  letter. 

Looking  forward  to  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you  at  the  American  Surgical 
Association  in  Philadelphia  the  latter  part  of  the  week,  and  with  expressions 
of  esteem,  I  am. 

Very  sincerely  yours, 

J.  B.  Murphy. 


For  surgically  relieving  a  thrombosed  artery. — R.  I'.  \V. 


62 


CIVIL    WAR    RECOLLECTIONS 


APPENDIX    H 


ittttwr  ia 

Br.  Robert  f.  Wtix 

an  ii'aturftag,  Imrnlwr  tlj?  tentlj 
(§ttt»  ttymxmnb  ttitt?  Jjimorefc  ana  ten 

Ittteratij  (Eltth 


AND    APPENDICES  63 


APPENDIX     I 

Some  two  years  ago  Dr.  Edward  Souchon,  of  New  Orleans,  addressed 
a  circular  to  the  various  surgeons  in  this  country  asking  from  them  details 
as  to  the  number  and  kind  of  surgical  procedures  or  operations  that  they  had 
originated.  His  collected  information  has,  however,  not  yet  been  published. 
It  was  with  some  mortification  that  my  answer  to  his  queries  was  sent.  For 
with  an  experience  of  nearly  fifty  years  in  hospital  or  private  surgical  work 
I  was  able  to  enumerate  only  a  few  examples  that  I  believed  of  my  own 
generating.  There  is  excluded  from  this  small  list  the  improvements  in 
technic  and  care  that  results  from  enlarged  experience  and  acquaintance  with 
the  work  and  result  of  other  surgeons.  Indeed,  it  frequently  happens,  from 
an  investigation  of  the  printed  records,  that  one's  own  baby  had  an  unex- 
pected father,  and  even  now  I  am  prepared  to  accept  such  a  revelation  in 
respect  to  my  own  claims,  in  spite  of  a  diligent  searching  in  the  literature 
of  our  profession  on  this  point. 

I  find,  on  overhauling  records,  principally  set  forth  in  the  History 
of  the  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons,  under  the  editorship  of  Dr. 
John  Shrady,  that  I  am  credited  with  nearly  one  hundred  articles  or  papers 
on  surgical  subjects,  of  which  the  titles  are  there  given.  Of  these  the  major 
portion  has  passed  into  oblivion  or  been  dwarfed  in  a  short  notice  or 
accepted  as  a  statement  not  necessarily  original  in  our  surgical  works.  Sev- 
eral might  be  cited  as  being  descriptions  of  first  operations  of  their 'kind  done 
in  America  but  of  foreign  origin.  This  was  only  due  to  the  zeal  and  thor- 
oughness of  my  own  reading  ami  familiarity  with  the  specialty  of  surgery 
abroad — a  something  that  was  held  in  common  to  those  of  us  who  zealously 
scanned  the  journals  in  that  department.  These  are  passed  by  and  only  ref- 
erence is  given  to  those  furnished  in  accordance  with  Dr.  Souchon's  request 
and   a-  beforehand   alluded   to.      They   are  as   follows: 

i.  A  Description  and  Treatment  of  [ntratympanitic  Vascular  Tumors 
with  ;i  Pulsating  Intact   Drum.     American  Journal  of  Otology,  1X79. 

2.  Ununited  Fracture  of  the  Long  Handle  of  the  Malleus.  Rosa, 
Diseases  r>t  tin-  Ear,  1 SSS.  (I  was  Aural  Surgeon  at  that  period  at  the 
New  York   Eye  ami   Ear   Infirmary.) 

<.  On  Traumati'  Aneurism  ot  the  Vertebral  Arter)  Cured  by  Com- 
pression.    Archives  <>i  Medicine,  April,   1SS4. 


64  CIVIL    WAR    RECOLLECTIONS 

4.  On  Sacrematous  Tumors  of  the  Knee  Joint.  Medical  Record, 
June  26,  1886. 

5.  On  Laparotomy  for  Preparation  of  the  Appendix  Vermiformis  15 
Hours  After  the  Onset  of  Acute  Symptoms — Recovery.  New  York  Medi- 
cal Journal,  April  27,  1889.  (This  was  the  first  of  such  operations  per- 
formed at  an  early  stage.) 

6.  Gastrotherapy — for  Diminishing  the  Size  of  the  Dilated  Stomach. 
Medical  Journal,  July  9,   1892. 

7.  A  Unique  Derangement  of  the  Knee  Joint  Demanding  Surgical 
Interference  (i.  e.,  a  synovial  folding  on  the  under  surface  of  the  patella,  caus- 
ing painful  and  difficult  flexion).  New  York  Medical  Journal,  July  16, 
1892. 

8.  On  the  Replacement  of  a  Depressed  Fracture  of  the  Malar  Bone. 
(By  opening  the  antrum  and  forcing  up  through  this  the  depressed  bone  to 
its  proper  level.)     Medical  Record,  March  6,  1897. 

9.  On  the  Surgical  Treatment  of  the  Sliding  Hernias  of  the  Ccecum 
or  Sigmoid  Flexure.     Medical  Record,  April  2,   1900. 

10.  An  Improved  Operation  for  Acute  Appendicitis  or  for  Quiescent 
Cases  with  Complications.  (Known  as  Weir's  Extension  of  the  Gridiron 
Incision.)     Medical  News,  Feb.    17,   1900. 

11.  On  a  New  Use  for  a  Useless  Appendix  in  the  Treatment  of  Ob- 
stinate Colitis.  (Fixing  it  at  the  skin  level  and  through  its  opened  tip  wash- 
ing out  the  diseased  colon.)      Medical  Record,  Aug.  9,   1902. 


ERRATA 

Insert  in  Item  4 — Sarcomatous  for  Sacrematous 
Insert  in  Item  5 — Perforation  for  Preparation 
Insert  in  Item  6 — Gastrorrhaphy  for  Gastrotherapy 


AND    APPENDICES  65 


APPENDIX    J 

Dr.  Carl  Beck,  of  New  York,  dedicated  his  Clinical  Description  of  the 
Roentgen  Rays,  1902,  as  follows: 

Viro  per  illustri  atque  celeberrimo. 
Decoris  artes  Chirurgia?  Americanae 

Dr.  Robert  F.  Weir 
dedicit   primam  descriptonem  clinicam 
de   radiis  Rontgeni 
Novis  Eboracis  Aprilis  Quint   1902 — Autor 

Dr.  George  E.  Brewer,  of  New  York,  in  his  admirable  "Text-Bcok  on 
Surgery,"   1903,  made  the  following  dedication: 

To 

Robert  F.  Weir,  M.D.,  Hon.  F.R.C.S.,  Eng., 

Professor  of  Surgery,  Columbia  University,  Etc., 

A  Master  of  Surgery,  A  Scholarly  Teacher,  a  Successful 

Practitioner,   My  Honored  Chief  and 

Valued    Friend, 

This  Volume   Is  Affectionately  Dedicated 

BY   THE    AUTHOR 


66  CIVIL    WAR    RECOLLECTIONS 


APPENDIX    K 

Honors  and  Appointments 
Hospitals : 

Attending  Surgeon,  St.  Luke's  Hospital 

Attending  Surgeon,  Roosevelt  Hospital 187 1  -1900,   1900- 

Attending  Surgeon,  N.  Y.   Hospital 1876- 

Attending  Surgeon,  Bellevue   Hospital    1881- 

Attending  Surgeon,  St.  Luke's  Hospital    1865, 

Attending  Surgeon,   N.  Y.  Eye  and  Ear  Infirmary 1870- 

Consulting  Surgeon,  N.   Y.    Cancer   Hospital 

Consulting  Surgeon,  N.  Y.  Hospital  for  Ruptured  and  Crippled.  . 

Consulting  Surgeon,   French   Hospital    

Consulting  Surgeon,  St.  Vincent's  Hospital   

Consulting  Surgeon,   N.  Y.  Institute  for  the  Blind 

Consulting  Surgeon,  N.  Y.   Hospital    

Consulting  Surgeon,   N.  Y.  State  Hospital  for  Crippled  and  De- 
formed Children   

Consulting  Surgeon,  Roosevelt  Hospital    

Colleges: 

Professor  Surgery,  Women's  Medical  College 

Professor  Clinical  Surgery,  College  Physicians  and  Surgeons 

Professor  Clinical  Surgery,  N.  Y.  Post-Graduate  School 

Professor  Surgery,  College  Physicians  and  Surgeons 

Societies : 

Therapeutical  Society,  Vice-President    

Practitioners'   Society,  President    

N.  Y.  Surgical  Society,  President   

N.  Y.  Academy  of  Med'cine,  Vice-President,  1884;  President.  .  .  . 

Medical  Society  Greater  New  York,  President 

American  Surgical  Association,  President 

Clubs : 

University  Club,  N.  Y 

St.  Nicholas  Society 

Century  Club,   N.  Y 


AND    APPENDICES  67 


Other  Honors: 

Member  of  the  N.  Y.  Medical  and  Surgical  Society 1875 

Membre   Correspondant   Societe  de  Chirurgie,   Paris 1893 

Fellow  College  Physicians,  Philadelphia 1894 

Fellow  Philadelphia  Academy  of  Surgery 1898 

Honorary  Fellow,  Royal  College  of  Surgeons,  England 1900 

Honorary  Fellow,  American  College  of  Surgery 1915 

Physician,  St.  Nicholas  Society 1908 

Chevalier  of  the  Order  of   Bolivar  * 1890 

And  many  others  of  lesser  importance. 


*  Of  this  a  few  words  may  be  noted.  The  distinction  was  given  me  by  reason  of  a  suc- 
cessful extirpation  of  a  cancerous  tongue  from  a  noted  Vice-President  of  Venezuela.  He 
was  a  small  man  with  a  soft,  pleasant  voice  and  gentle  manners.  On  asking  his  secretary 
how  so  mild  and  inoffensive  a  man  achieved  such  distinction  in  so  well-known  turbulent  a 
country  as  Venezuela — he  snorted:  "Inoffensive  you  call  him.  Do  you  know  how  he  secured 
his  election  as  its  Vice-President?  No!  I'll  tell  you:  he  met  his  two  competitors  at  a  din- 
ner and  shot  both  of  them!" 


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